Spurs and Liverpool were once playing the same game, now they're barely in the same league
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Updated 10/01/2020 at 16:15 GMT
At one stage it was a race between Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur to see who would break into the established elite, now the difference between the two could not be starker as they meet in London on Saturday.
Jurgen Klopp, Manager of Liverpool (L) and Jose Mourinho, manager of Manchester United
Image credit: Getty Images
On August 31st 2014 Liverpool travelled to North London to face Tottenham Hotspur.
It was a hotly anticipated battle; it was last year’s runners-up, who lost the title in such heart-breaking fashion, up against one of the pretenders, riding high after winning their opening two games of the season under new manager Mauricio Pochettino without conceding a goal.
By contrast Liverpool were already wobbling. They needed a late Daniel Sturridge goal to see off Southampton at Anfield in their opening match before getting resoundingly thumped 3-1 at the Etihad by the champions.
Yet this was a fixture Liverpool dominated the season prior, scoring nine unanswered goals, and, in Brendan Rodgers’ 100th match in charge they notched three more to bring Spurs and Pochettino back down to earth.
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Liverpool's Brendan Rodgers (L) celebrates with Steven Gerrard after their English Premier League match against Tottenham Hotspur
Image credit: Reuters
Despite this result at the end of the season, just two points separated the two sides, yet both were a long way off Jose Mourinho’s rampant Chelsea team.
In the summer Pochettino started to stamp his mark on the Spurs squad, mostly by clearing out a lot of the dead wood and building on an impressive first campaign. But Liverpool had to deal with the Raheem Sterling saga, the departure of Steven Gerrard and the late arrival of Mario Balotelli in what turned out to be a fairly farcical summer.
Yet when the two sides met in October 2015 the optimism was emanating from both benches, with former Borussia Dortmund boss Jurgen Klopp taking charge of his first game after Rodgers’ sacking. Neither side was perfect, and it showed in the 0-0 draw that followed, but with two attacking managers and some promising pieces it was easy to see why both fanbases were beginning to get excited about the futures.
Don’t forget, the Jose Mourinho banter period was already well underway at this stage at Stamford Bridge and it was easy to find flaws in the long-term plans at the Emirates and Old Trafford despite decent starts to that campaign before the Leicester City miracle took hold. Was either of Liverpool or Spurs going to immediately challenge for the title? Perhaps not but the structures were starting to be built that would allow them to step into the top echelons of the Premier League.
Fast forward a little over five years and it’s astonishing to see where the two are. Liverpool are the best side in the world, a relentless winning machine who no-one has figured out how to stop. Spurs have a little over half the points tally of Klopp’s team and now it is they who are the latest host for the mercurial virus known as Jose.
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Jose cuddles Spurs head of comms: 'Only we believe in Liverpool upset!'
For years Daniel Levy would preach his patience as a virtue to be lauded, he wouldn’t be lulled into over-spending on the wrong player, oh no, not he. Instead he would work with Pochettino and the rest of the recruitment staff to identify gaps in the market, players with value, and high upside.
Players like Toby Alderweireld, Christian Eriksen, Dele Alli and others. Give young players like Alli and Harry Kane a chance and build from there.
It was a structure that led to regular Champions League football, it took them all the way to the final, in many ways a truly remarkable feat when you consider that five years before reaching that showpiece they had to watch Tim Sherwood saluting Emmanuel Adebayor.
But the team they lost to, the team they failed to really trouble at all in Madrid, had done a lot of what they had done and had come from a similar position
Except they had done it a whole lot better.
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Liverpool FC celebration parade after their Champions League final win over Tottenham Hotspur in Madrid on 1st June; James Milner of Liverpool lifts the trophy at the front of the open top bus
Image credit: Getty Images
Liverpool quietly assembled a stellar analytics and recruiting team around Klopp that perhaps still doesn’t get enough credit. They brought in players like Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah, one seen as a gamble and one still regarded with some unease after his struggles at Chelsea and watched them blossom into two of the greatest forwards in Europe.
They spotted Andy Robertson and snapped him up from Hull City, not being afraid to bring in a defender from a relegated side. Opposite the Scot, Klopp wasn’t afraid to throw in teenager Trent Alexander-Arnold, who is now one of the best in the world in his position.
But as they fell short of the required standard, losing finals and failing to build any sort of consistency that would allow them to challenge for the title, Liverpool didn’t stand still.
They reacted, they were proactive and they didn’t try and make excuses.
They efficiently identified holes in their team and went out and spent big to bring in Alisson and Virgil van Dijk to complete what is now an elite defence, as well as adding the likes of Fabinho and Naby Keita to their midfield.
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'Google it!' Klopp forgets Mourinho's position as a player
Liverpool are now considered the benchmark for everyone else, and rightly so, but with a bit more aggressiveness in the market, and surely some more patience with Pochettino, it may well have been Spurs.
It was Spurs who had the elite defence, they had a fearsome attacking line-up and they had one of the best managers going.
But they dillied and dallied, they didn’t identify their midfield issues quickly enough, they didn’t react to losing Kyle Walker and then Kieran Trippier. They didn’t do something to arrest the decline of Hugo Lloris and they didn’t give Harry Kane the support he so desperately needed. They didn’t back their manager and in the end they felt they had to dispense with his services and bring in Mourinho.
Mourinho may well end up bringing success to Spurs but he won’t build anything, he won’t last, he never does. And then what? Do Spurs start cycling through managers like, dare we say it, Chelsea?
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Daniel Levy, Tottenham chairman
Image credit: Getty Images
Longevity and loyalty are rare commodities in football nowadays. Klopp won’t last as long as Arsene Wenger or Sir Alex Ferguson, no-one ever will again, but when he does leave Liverpool will be set-up to succeed beyond him, whomever they appoint.
Where is that sort of direction from Spurs?
Who cares right? As long as the new stadium and the TV money is still swelling the coffers does it really matter? When he steps aside Levy will be able to argue that his Spurs tenure saw them take their seat at the top table in Europe and will point to the record commercial performances.
But he will also be unable to escape the lingering regret that they didn’t make more of a statement and build something even more.
Liverpool have caused a seismic shift in the way clubs think about team building, it just seems ironic that the team they’re facing on Saturday will now have to learn that lesson all over again…
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