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Tottenham's trip to Liverpool will not only clarify the top four picture, but tell us how Spurs really see themselves

Poch was keen to emphasise the differences between his side and their oft-compared foes, and as much of that might come down to mentality and self-perception as anything else

Jonathan Liew
Chief Sports Writer
Saturday 03 February 2018 11:22 GMT
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Liverpool v Spurs: Premier League match preview

“No, no,” Mauricio Pochettino interjected firmly. The question was about whether Liverpool and Tottenham were clubs of a similar size and shape: high-velocity attacking football, aggressive pressing, on-trend coaches, a top-six rather than a top-three budget and long on critical acclaim but short on trophies. Pochettino gets asked this every time Tottenham play Liverpool. Normally he lets the question go. This time, though, he wanted to explain.

“We are different,” he insisted. “We have different players, with different características. Liverpool play and keep their shape - 1-4-3-3 always - and both teams are so exciting to see. But in a different way.”

You know Pochettino is trying to push his point home when he starts throwing in wanton Spanish. And on the face of things, Sunday’s game at Anfield has the feel of an even scrap, an arm-wrestle for the last Champions League place. But while it may be tight on the field, Pochettino insisted, off the field this is very far from a meeting of equals.

“A few weeks ago they signed the most expensive centre-back in the world,” Pochettino said. “For me, it is not fair to compare Tottenham with Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, United and City,” he said. “They sign the players they want. [Virgil] Van Dijk, [Pierre-Emerick] Aubameyang. We are competing with them, of course. But to compare outside the pitch, I think it’s not fair.”

Pochettino has been trying to press this issue over recent months, and you suspect there is a double motive at work here. First, it blazons his own considerable achievements - look at how rich they are, and look how well I’ve done to compete with them! But secondly, it helps engender the sort of insurgent, underdog mentality that can bind a dressing room together. They may be the world’s eleventh-richest club, but when it comes to English football’s Big Six, Pochettino wants Tottenham to think like minnows.

The problem is, when they go on the road, they play like minnows too. Wednesday’s magnificent 2-0 win against Manchester United at Wembley merely widened the curious gulf between Tottenham against big teams at home and away. Since Pochettino joined Tottenham in 2014, their record away against the rest of the Big Six is played 18, won 1, drawn 6, lost 11.

Tottenham outplayed and outgunned Man United on Wednesday night

“That is why, maybe, we miss a title,” Pochettino lamented. “Why we don’t win the Premier League. “We finished second last season, third the season before, and of course if we won more games away from home, I’m sure that we would win the title.”

Against Liverpool, their poor record stretches back much further: Tottenham are 2-7-16 at Anfield in the Premier League era. And so it is hard to resist the conclusion that the block is partly a mental one. “Maybe because we are the younger team in the Premier League,” Pochettino said when pushed for possible reasons. “Maybe we need time to mature. But this season, in 19 games between the top six, only four victories for the away team. It is a problem for everyone.”

Last season’s trip to Anfield was one of their most disappointing games of the season. Languid, lethargic and curiously lacking in intensity, Tottenham were outplayed from start to finish by Liverpool, who scored twice in quick succession early on and coasted to a 2-0 victory. The defeat left them nine points behind Antonio Conte’s Chelsea, and though they rallied to win the next nine in a row, that game in retrospect is where the title was lost.

Stylistically, Tottenham are a good fit for Liverpool: they keep a high line with plenty of space in behind, and if you can move the ball forward as quickly as Jurgen Klopp wants his teams to do, there are ample opportunities for the likes of Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino to spring the offside trap. Tottenham’s biggest weakness is Liverpool’s biggest strength, and as the 4-1 win at Wembley earlier this season proved, the reverse is probably true.

So will Pochettino adapt his fabled philosophy, as he has done in this season’s Champions League? At the Bernabeu against Real Madrid, and at Wembley against Borussia Dortmund, Tottenham performed outstandingly despite enjoying only 33 per cent and 32 per cent of possession respectively. Those games showed that Tottenham have more strings to their bow this season, a trait that Pochettino insisted was evidence of this side’s greater maturity.

“Remember when some people complained or criticised that Tottenham didn’t have Plan B,” he said. “We can play with possession. Without possession. In counter-attack or not in counter-attack. Dominate games. Play with one striker. Without a striker. Three at the back. Five at the back. Four at the back. Now you have to say: Tottenham have Plan A, B, C and D, no?”

Contrast Pochettino’s assessment of his own side’s flexibility with his comments about Liverpool’s fidelity to the 4-3-3 system, and it is clear that he feels his side have an edge in that respect. And yet, you wonder whether this is a game that will be decided by mentality as much as tactics. Perhaps the same small-town, tight-knit, David against Goliath atmosphere that Pochettino has helped to generate at Tottenham is as much of a hindrance as a help in these matches.

Playing the minnow has helped Pochettino create an unrivalled team spirit, the flexibility and fluidity of the internet start-up against the traditional giants. But perhaps, in order to win away at the bigger sides, you need to stop thinking of them as bigger sides. Sunday’s game could go a long way to showing us where Tottenham perceive themselves in the grand scheme of things.

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