In the blockbuster tie of the weekend, Tottenham welcomed Liverpool to the national stadium in front of a record 80,000 crowd. In what we thought would be a tight affair, Mauricio Pochettino’s men ran rampant 4-1 winners over a dejected Liverpool side. The win leaves Tottenham three points clear in 3rd place, as Jürgen Klopp’s reds have now sunk to 9th in the league. Goals from Harry Kane (2), Dele Alli and Heung-Min Son were more than enough to see Spurs through.
Here are 3 talking points from Tottenham’s 4-1 win over Liverpool.
Jürgen Klopp’s away record
At first, it was fun to point out how bad Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool team are away from home at big clubs, but now it’s become worrying. In the two games they’ve played away against top 6 opposition this season, they’ve lost on a 9-1 aggregate. That’s surprising seeing as they’re a formidable proposition at home against top teams.
Liverpool have now conceded the most goals (15) away from home than any other team in the league. In just 5 away games this season, Liverpool have conceded those 15 goals, averaging 3 goals per game.
Harry Kane is the real deal
A lot of the time we see strikers score a lot of goals, but in the big games they’re not able to back it up, Harry Kane is bucking that trend emphatically. In the space of a week, the star man was able to score three goals against Real Madrid, and Liverpool combined.
That’s the definition of a big-game player, and it’s hard for anyone to continue to doubt his abilities. Harry Kane has now scored 8 league goals this season, more than any other player. Let’s not forget that the Englishman didn’t even score in the month of August.
Apart from his goal-scoring prowess, Harry Kane was influential all over the pitch for Tottenham. The 24-year-old completed 3 successful take-ons, created 1 chance, attempted 7 shots on goal, provided 1 assist and won 2 aerials. He truly is Tottenham’s talisman and everything good attacking-wise comes through him.
A few weeks ago, we at Sports Courant claimed the Englishman was world class, and it’s becoming harder & harder to argue against that point, right?
Dejan Lovren’s shambolic display
It’s rare that a player has to come off after 30 minutes of football, but Dejan Lovren achieved that feat at Wembley. He was the sole reason why Liverpool conceded those two early goals in the opening 12 minutes. For the first goal, he lost his man in Harry Kane, thus allowing the Englishman to go through on goal after just 4 minutes.
Eight minutes later, Lovren was at fault again as he rashly jumped at a long ball, missed it and allowed Harry Kane to run in behind him. The Croatian looked so out of sorts that many of the neutrals watching at home felt he was injured. But alas, as soon as he came off he sat on the bench, implying nothing physically was wrong with him.
Dejan Lovren didn’t make a single tackle whilst on the pitch, that highlights how detrimental he was to Liverpool’s defence.
