Tottenham Hotspur fell at the final hurdle against their top of the table rivals last night, succumbing to a late Liverpool winner at Anfield.
Let’s take a look at the five things we learned:
Fallen away – Spurs are no longer top of the Premier League table, with Liverpool moving three points clear and Leicester City to come for the Lilywhites next.
Wasted chances – It was a classic Mourinho performance against a big side, only this time Spurs missed their vital chances. Steven Bergwijn missed two one-on-ones, while Harry Kane missed a sitter of a header in the second half. If at least one of them had gone it, perhaps Spurs could have gone on to win the game.
Defensive errors – Unfortunately for Spurs, there were too many defensive errors last night, with Liverpool getting plenty of shots away on Lloris’ goal. Despite Mourinho setting up to keep them out more than anything, individual positional errors from the likes of Dier and Lo Celso granted Liverpool key chances. Defending from set-pieces remains a problem for the Lilywhites too.
Formation change – The change in formation for the first half, seeing Moussa Sissoko play as a right-mid and Lo Celso in the centre, simply did not work. Sissoko, albeit amazing in defence, is not quick enough in transition when breaking forward. In the second half, Spurs opened themselves up but also looked infinitely more dangerous too.
Dele return – Dele Alli has now made back-to-back appearances off the bench for Spurs, begging the question ‘Is Mourinho finally willing to give him another chance?’ Perhaps only time will tell whether Dele is given a starting XI spot in order to truly prove himself.
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