Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool played out a nine-goal thriller in North London this evening to hurl everyone into the Christmas period. Let’s take a look at five things we learned from the game.
It’s Christmas – sometimes you just have to laugh, shake your fist at the sky, and curse Spurs for bringing you coal for yet another year. Let’s be honest, none of us really expected Tottenham to win today with Liverpool in full flow and so many Spurs players missing, but congrats to anyone who predicted 6-3. Get yourself a lottery ticket now!
I think it would be easy to overanalyse that performance, picking out who played well, who let the side down, and what needs to change, but honestly… why? Spurs are tired, down to the bare bones, and against the best team in the country – let’s just enjoy our Christmas and go again next time!
Four of Tottenham’s first-choice five were missing from the starting XI today, as well as Rodrigo Bentancur in the deepest midfield role. No Vicario, Romero, Van de Ven, or Udogie. Up against one of the most potent attacks in the world, and the best team in England. The result kind of makes sense. It would be best to wait and judge Spurs against Liverpool in January when (hopefully) we have a full team out again.
It’s weird to give a defender a shout-out when we just conceded six but I thought Djed Spence actually played pretty well. His one-v-one battles against Mo Salah often ended with Spence on top. Salah was most dangerous when drifting infield to the inexperienced Archie Gray or Radu Dragusin. Let us also remember that Spence is playing on his weaker side. I, for one, would love to see him get a game at right-back instead of Pedro Porro for a game soon.
Weirdly, it was probably the worst match to protest against Daniel Levy because the crazy scoreline will take all the headlines. However, the fans looked to be out in strong numbers to campaign against the Tottenham chairman. It very much feels like this fresh wave of protests is not going to go away. That leaves Levy with two choices – step down or step up. I suspect he will lean towards the latter and back Ange Postecoglou rather heavily in the next 6-12 months.
Tottenham finish 2024 in the bottom half of the Premier League table. However, you can’t help but feel a little optimistic. Despite some woeful defeats and an injury crisis, it feels like Ange Postecoglou is building something. Whether it is something worthy of success or something destined to fail feels rather irrelevant – at its core, it is something interesting enough to at least explore further. 2025 feels like a year in which the direction is up for Tottenham Hotspur.
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