Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou lifted the famous line from the movie Gladiator following the wild ride of victory over Manchester United when he asked: “Are you not entertained?”
It was Postecoglou’s way of answering questions about his cavalier approach, after Spurs threatened to concede a 3-0 lead in Thursday’s Carabao Cup quarter-final before winning 4-3.
The problem is that Postecoglou’s idea of entertainment works two ways – as he and Spurs found out to their cost as they were brutally punished by Liverpool in front of their own supporters.
Liverpool certainly found Spurs highly entertaining in a 6-3 win that was nowhere near an accurate reflection of their superiority. It demonstrated why Arne Slot’s team are in control of the title race with a four-point lead over Chelsea at Christmas, with a game in hand, while Spurs languish in 11th place, eight points off fourth.
Entertainment is never a problem with Spurs under Postecoglou. But pleasure is laced with an element of sporting torture when they are exposed to a team of Liverpool’s world-class attacking quality.
There have now been 30 goals in Spurs’ past five games. Entertaining all right, but 10 of those have been scored against Postecoglou’s team in successive home league defeats by Chelsea and Liverpool. In the latter case, the only question was how Liverpool only scored six while somehow conceding three.
Liverpool’s expected goals total was 4.6 to Spurs’ 1.2. Slot’s team, measured by Opta statistics, carved out nine big chances – testimony to their dominance as well the defensive vulnerability Postecoglou shows little sign of addressing with extra pragmatism.
It would unfair on Postecoglou and Spurs not to point out that he is missing first-choice goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario as well as central defenders Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven. These are big absentees for a team playing in such an open style, especially Van de Ven, whose pace is so crucial to Postecoglou’s favoured high line.
Spurs are stretched on numbers, meaning Postecoglou fielded an unchanged side from that which faced Manchester United on Thursday.
No such problems for Liverpool, however, who have now won 12 and drawn three of their 16 league games this season. They also have the highest goal difference of plus 21.
