Human resources error creates a giant hole in Spurs’ top-four chances
Weakness in Mourinho’s squad previously hidden by Kane goals is now laid bare for all to see
With his leg in a brace, Harry Kane tried to be part of this match by tweeting pictures of himself “in-play”, as a bookmaker would say. Over his resting limb, you could see 20-yearold Japhet Tanganga on the TV screen attempting to fight off Liverpool’s mighty forward line.
Kane’s emotional involvement was touching but his interventions on social media only emphasised Tottenham Hotspur’s problem. The two biggest things Spurs lack are good public transport to their glorious arena and someone capable of impersonating Kane – even badly. It is not so much that Spurs lack an understudy anywhere near his class; more that they simply lack an understudy full-stop.
Encouraged nonetheless by his team’s second-half fightback, Jose Mourinho said: “It would be very easy for me to say – all these low crosses across the face of the goal, with Harry Kane, one touch, one goal. Two touches, two goals. It would be very easy for me to say that, and take the press conference around Harry Kane, [Moussa] Sissoko, and what we don’t have.
“It’s OK. I hope everything went well and I hope he [Kane] has three months in peace to recover, and I don’t want to talk about it. He’s irreplaceable. The boys, they did fantastic with what they gave.”
Liverpool started here with three attackers, all of them prolific, and Divock Origi on the bench. Spurs began with three false nines, which is rather different, even if Son Heungmin, Dele Alli and Lucas Moura were all born to go forward. None is capable of performing as a centre-forward in the style of Kane or Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino, who put the league leaders ahead on 36 minutes. There was no tweet from Kane about that.
To call it an overdependence on England’s No1 striker is an understatement.
It is more of a personnel void, a staffing cock-up, a human resources debacle, especially against the dream, centreback combo of Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez – not to mention Jordan Henderson in the sentry position and Liverpool’s two superb full-backs.
What Spurs need at a minimum is a Divock Origi: a Premier League calibre back-up striker, because the Tottenham board can no longer hide behind Kane’s golden numbers. Moves are afoot to correct this anomaly but it should never have come to this: the goal machine tweeting from his bed while a denuded squad tried to stop Liverpool gliding to a record 61 points from 21 games.
Mourinho is in the awkward position of not wanting to talk about something that is impossible not to talk about: the giant hole in his chances of raising Spurs to a top-four place. Tottenham’s manager grumbled a lot at Manchester United about this or that squad deficiency but rarely has he been in this position.
No top team can carry on like that. Frankly, Spurs got away with having unconvincing (or no) back-up during Kane’s golden run. His haul of 136 goals from 201 appearances is no comfort to Son and co as they labour to do Kane’s work for him in a side who have kept one clean sheet in 12 games under Mourinho. The defensive security is simply not there for Tottenham’s false nines to work from.
As his team’s confidence ebbed before the interval, Mourinho knew he needed more urgency and bite from his players, and they re-emerged encouraged by the knowledge that Liverpool might have scored four in the first half yet returned with only a narrow lead. Moura’s tenacity struck the right note.
Mourinho is on uncharted ground. Not since his early days in Portugal has he had to work on a team with no great recent tradition of winning big, a frugally built squad and only one striker, who will be hard to hang on to.
With Eriksen a shadow of his former self, Mourinho sent on Giovani Lo Celso and Erik Lamela and should have seen his team equalise when Georginio Wijnaldum gave the ball away and Son lifted a straightforward chance over Alisson Becker’s crossbar.
Liverpool’s mission to set endless records was being undermined by imprecision in the Tottenham penalty box as Lamela and Lo Celso added to the array of counter-attackers in white who tried to overwhelm Liverpool’s midfield through weight of numbers. Liverpool, undaunted, sent on Origi in place of Sadio Mane when their midfield was starting to buckle.
“We knew that without a striker – but with creative players – and even without Lamela starting a game for three months, we knew Lamela and Giovani for 25 [to] 30 minutes could change the game,” Mourinho said, explaining his plan. “So, we did the maximum we could do. I think we deserved more.”
A Mourinho knee-slide is no rarity, but the one he performed when Lo Celso somehow miscued his finish across goal from a wonderful Serge Aurier cross is not one he will remember fondly. For the second time in minutes, Spurs had blown a chance to take a point off a side who were surprisingly open to midfield raids in the last 20 minutes. Maybe Liverpool’s confidence is now so high that they no longer believe in the possibility of defeat.
It was frustrating for Spurs fans, but also mildly encouraging, such was the refusal to lose meekly. Kane’s fingers were busy, but you can only hope he kept his leg still.