Liverpool vs Tottenham: Something at Spurs is ending – and they don’t know what is coming next

Perhaps the most thankless of tasks call for sacrificial lambs. Maybe it was a day to round up the old guard, reasoning that they are less likely to be damaged by the experience. Or perhaps Mauricio Pochettino sought solace in the sight of those who have performed for him time and again and who came close to procuring a point that, as Tottenham’s last meeting with elite opponents ended 7-2, would have felt unexpected. 

Whichever, he brought back the bastards. It may also be an unfair characterisation of men who have given stalwart service and who could be forgiven for considering life elsewhere. Yet one response to the 5-0 thrashing of Crvena Zvezda was to say that Pochettino had picked the men he trusted most, the ones whose future was certain to be at White Hart Lane and whose commitment goes unquestioned. 

Tuesday had seemed to herald a seismic shift in approach from a manager who had been casting around in his search for solutions. Exit Toby Alderweireld, Danny Rose and Christian Eriksen, three of those who had envisaged a future elsewhere, three of those Pochettino had planned to be without, three of those who could leave in the summer. Farewell to the past, hello to the future? Not exactly. Five days later, they were back.

The comparisons with Pochettino’s initial bomb squad, the men he bombed out of White Hart Lane upon his appointment, were inexact. This is an altogether more distinguished group. They were also a band he reunited, and out of choice. Even Eriksen’s recall was not entirely necessitated by Erik Lamela’s thigh injury; not when Tanguy Ndombele began on the bench. 

After the shock to the Anfield system of Harry Kane’s first-minute opener, Eriksen threatened to add a second goal with a volley. But he was hampered in a right-sided role where struggled to track the rampaging Andy Robertson. Pitting Alderweireld against Sadio Mane felt a risk, given the Belgian’s struggles against pace this season, though defending deep limited the ground he had to cover. He looked more the Alderweireld of old than an increasingly elderly Alderweireld. He acquitted himself the best of those who are unlikely to visit Anfield again in Tottenham colours, standing tall amid an Anfield onslaught.

If the danger to Rose seemed to be Mohamed Salah, it was actually Trent Alexander-Arnold, who delivered a stream of inviting crosses, and Jordan Henderson. Thirteen minutes in, a goal to the good, there was a chorus of Rose’s name from the travelling fans. If he was trying to endear himself to them with a conspicuous show of determination, it backfired when he was booked for hacking down Henderson. He was also culpable of failing to clear the ball when the Liverpool captain levelled. Perhaps most surprisingly, he had a chance to equalise, slashing a shot into the Anfield Road End. 

The real errant full-back, however, was Serge Aurier, conceding a penalty in typically needless fashion for Salah’s winner. It was cruel on Heung-Min Son, vibrant, threatening and inches from putting Tottenham 2-0 up, who exuded menace at one end, while the increasingly heroic Paulo Gazzaniga brought defiance at the other.

A liability, a genuine star and an understudy, they are the modern Tottenham. Alderweireld, Eriksen and Rose have been part of arguably their best team for half a century. But now that side is in transition and if Pochettino is to forge a second superb side, they will not be part of it. Something is ending, even if Tottenham do not know what comes next.