Tottenham supervisor Ange Postecoglou lifted the well-known line from the film Gladiator following the wild trip of victory over Manchester United when he requested: “Are you not entertained?”
It was Postecoglou’s method of answering questions on his cavalier method, after Spurs threatened to concede a 3-0 lead in Thursday’s Carabao Cup quarter-final earlier than successful 4-3.
The issue is that Postecoglou’s concept of leisure works two methods – as he and Spurs discovered to their value as they had been brutally punished by Liverpool in entrance of their very own supporters.
Liverpool actually discovered Spurs extremely entertaining in a 6-3 win that was nowhere close to an correct reflection of their superiority. It demonstrated why Arne Slot’s staff are in command of the title race with a four-point lead over Chelsea at Christmas, with a sport in hand, whereas Spurs languish in eleventh place, eight factors off fourth.
Leisure is rarely an issue with Spurs underneath Postecoglou. However pleasure is laced with a component of sporting torture when they’re uncovered to a staff of Liverpool’s world-class attacking high quality.
There have now been 30 objectives in Spurs’ previous 5 video games. Entertaining all proper, however 10 of these have been scored in opposition to Postecoglou’s staff in successive house league defeats by Chelsea and Liverpool. Within the latter case, the one query was how Liverpool solely scored six whereas someway conceding three.
Liverpool’s anticipated objectives complete was 4.6 to Spurs’ 1.2. Slot’s staff, measured by Opta statistics, carved out 9 large probabilities – testimony to their dominance as nicely the defensive vulnerability Postecoglou reveals little signal of addressing with additional pragmatism.
It might unfair on Postecoglou and Spurs to not level out that he’s lacking first-choice goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario in addition to central defenders Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven. These are large absentees for a staff enjoying in such an open model, particularly Van de Ven, whose tempo is so essential to Postecoglou’s favoured excessive line.
Spurs are stretched on numbers, which means Postecoglou fielded an unchanged aspect from that which confronted Manchester United on Thursday.
No such issues for Liverpool, nonetheless, who’ve now gained 12 and drawn three of their 16 league video games this season. In addition they have the very best aim distinction of plus 21.
