FORGET about the fact that Jurgen Klopp has eight years of Premier League football over Ange Postecoglou. Forget about the title success in 2020, and the Champions League triumph, and Mane, Salah and Firmino reducing defences to rubble across several seasons.
When assessing the teams preparing to square up to one another in North London this weekend, we find two sides at the same stage of their developments.
Now of course this isn’t strictly true. It can’t be, not with Liverpool having Alisson, Van Dijk, Salah and the like in their ranks, seasoned superstars who have been there, seen it all, and worn the commemorative t-shirts.
But still, by and large, Klopp’s reimagined Liverpool 2.0 and Postecoglou’s new-look Spurs share so many similar traits as to evoke that annoying gif featuring two Spidermen pointing at each other which is commonplace on social media. Regarding who they are, compared to what they recently were, for the time being they’re kindred spirits.
Last season, there was a flatness to one and a conservatism to the other that didn’t suit either.
After years of breathless, bombastic fare, Liverpool regressed to being decidedly ordinary, their aging midfield too easily by-passed and this was a big problem because an out-of-sorts back-line was routinely offering up swathes of space.
It was Liverpool with a head-cold, and consequently Klopp’s men lost eight times on the road, too often undone by even a bog-standard combination of quality and intensity.
As for Tottenham, years of being tethered and tamed by Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte left them woefully predictable. Set up to defend, they couldn’t do that especially well, conceding their highest number of league goals since 1993. Up front, any pretense at adventure revolved around pinging 714 crosses to an area inhabited by Harry Kane.
Fast forward to the here and now, however, and in the north and the south, it’s chalk and cheese.
With a remodeled midfield boasting an average age of 23, the Reds’ press has improved substantially, energizing a vital facet of Klopp’s blueprint and resulting in them hunting in packs again to good effect. Moreover, in Dominic Szoboszlai there is creativity and intent now in and around the centre-circle, the Hungarian hitting the ground running and averaging two key passes per 90 and 2.6 progressive carries.
Further forward, a reconstructed front three needed most of last term to gel, but we saw in the spring what they’re capable of and that has carried over into 2023/24 with all five of Nunez, Gakpo, Jota, Diaz and Salah getting off the mark, the latter two in particular looking sharp and purposeful.
Salah’s pen against West Ham last week means he has either scored or assisted in his last 13 Premier League appearances and only three other players have previously done this. Tremendously, one of these was Salah himself in 2021.
The Egyptian has fired 11 in 18 versus Spurs in past encounters.
If Liverpool are reborn though, it is a transformation that pales to Tottenham’s, the hosts this Saturday assimilating and embracing their new manager’s attacking mandate far better and quicker than many believed possible.
Another brace scored at the Emirates last week means that Postecoglou is only the fourth top-flight coach to oversee 2+ goals in his first six games in charge and beyond the finishing stats, pretty much every positive metric has vastly increased from last term. This includes shots undertaken, with a league-high of 19 per 90 testifying to Tottenham’s heightened ambition.
So much of this metamorphosis can naturally be attributed to the affable Australian, but James Maddison too should take a bow, the attacking midfielder creating three chances per game to date. Only three other players can better that. Son Heung-min’s notable return to form meanwhile is also a factor and it would be tempting to back the Korean to score were it not for the fact that all five of his goals have been converted away from home.
In summary, both teams have been revived and spectacularly so. Both teams are unbeaten. Both teams have scored an average of 2.5 per game so far.
That Spidey gif comes to mind again.
Yet pertinently, each side additionally has a habit of conceding first, and with seven deficits between them, an early strike cannot be discounted. Though no defeats have come from this – and though it speaks well of their newly sourced character – it seems these two peas in a pod tend to start games a little loosely.
This is definitely worth bearing in mind.
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