Tottenham–Liverpool

Tottenham vs Liverpool is one of those matches we notice when they appear on the schedule. The reason for that is very simple, here it tends to be scored over a low shoe. Both teams are, or at least they have been, offensive teams, and the best defense tends to be attack. Store Ange has now left the ship at Spurs, and Thomas Frank has taken over the helm. The start of his time at the club has been turbulent, and it all peaked after the crushing defeat to Nottingham last time. What did Frank mean? Well, that it will take decades to build a club like Tottenham. A brilliant thing to say if you want to lose your dressing room, as well as your job. Frank is living on borrowed time. Slot in the other dressing room has gained a little better foothold in the last couple of weeks. Much thanks to Alisson in the cage, Szoboszlai everywhere on the pitch, and Ekitike at the top. The hope is that being a form player is contagious as easily as the flu at Christmas, and that you will thus become a team to be reckoned with again. Could an away game against a faltering Tottenham be a good opportunity to build momentum?

Tottenham – Decades away from being a solid football club

Frank in many ways sealed his own fate. To blurt out something like that to the assembled press is career suicide. The following week you will meet your players on the training pitch again, knowing that they now know what you think deep down about the state of affairs. A brilliant plan to make things worse than they need to be. There must have been a few meetings in London over the past week.

On the pitch, Tottenham are still struggling with injuries. Important Kulusevski is out, as is Solanke. Maddison may miss the whole season, and Udogie is struggling with a muscle strain. In addition, Sarr and Bissouma have now left for AFCON. Frank does not have the best cards in his hand ahead of the match against the reigning champions in red.

Three of the last five in the league have been lost to Spurs, with a little too many balls in their own net. They were outplayed by Arsenal and Nottingham, and also deservedly lost to Fulham, on their own turf. We fear that both form and their own manager will make life miserable for the lily-whites this weekend, and that another defeat could be in store.

Liverpool – Less risk, less traffic in their own goal yard

For Slot made some moves after a string of disappointing results. He just had to in the end. One of the first things that was done was to bench Salah. This decision has been largely covered already, so we'll leave it for now. Salah has gone to Africa for a month anyway, and Liverpool's boss will have to look to others to put the ball in the net.

Ekitike is the man who makes it happen. The Frenchman is in brilliant form, and really shows what a class player he both is and can become. The stride, the top speed, the close technique, and the calmness in front of goal. Like a Darwin Nunez with ice-cold water in his veins. Would Liverpool have bought Isak if they had known how well Ekitike was fitting into the team? I don't know, but as of now it is the young Frenchman who is the spearhead, not the striking Swede.

Alexander Isak is happy to play against Tottenham, however, and can point to a bucket of goals against Saturday's opponent. Will Slot manage to find space for both of his spearheads then? We assume that Ekitike gets the nod, and that Isak will have to accept contributing from the bench. Liverpool's manager probably wants to continue the compact approach, and that often means five midfielders on the field from the start, if all are healthy. Jones has been able to show his qualities lately, and together with the work capacity of Szoboszlai, these two cover a lot of space. More potential attacks that are stopped already in the middle, and less pressure on Liverpool's stoppers. It seems to have worked in the short term, if nothing else.

Conclusion – Two fighting cocks with different form curves

For Liverpool, they have no choice, they just have to keep picking up three points now. If you are going to be in the top four, and possibly dream of challenging Arsenal and Manchester City, you have to build a longer series of wins. The match schedule at Christmas is a nice read, so in a way you can say that it all depends on this match. A win here will do a lot in a positive direction.

Tottenham must rally the troops and try to prove to both the fans and their own manager that they have something to do in the top half. They must look to the same guys for results, and players like Kudus, Simons and Richarlison must deliver the goods. The latter tends to irritate the entire Liverpool team already on the way out onto the pitch, so don't forget about some awkward situations between the Brazilian and a certain Dutchman in the visitors' central defence.

The last three games between Spurs and Liverpool in the league have been quite a few shows. 5-1 to the Reds, 6-3 to Liverpool, away from home as well, and a 4-2 win at Anfield. So 15 goals have been scored by the Spurs against Tottenham over these games. In between, they have met over two games in the League Cup, where Liverpool won 4-1 on aggregate. We see the outlines of an ever-so-small dream opponent for the visitors.

What about Frank's statements and Slot's slightly more cautious approach? We "always" end up with goals both ways, so that's probably the safest bet we can launch. However, Liverpool are looking better again, and since the home team has shown a bad tendency to completely collapse over the last few games, we end up with the Christmas visit from the Beatles city scoring at least two. Does that mean Liverpool will win? No, not necessarily. The 3-3 draw against Leeds is fresh in the memory, and it won't surprise anyone if Saturday's battle ends in even numbers. However, the odds and form are mostly in favor of the Reds, so try with caution if you want to mark.

England at 18:30: Tottenham - Liverpool: Over 1.5 goals to Liverpool (1.84)

Alternative game

England at 18:30: Tottenham - Liverpool: Both teams score (1.60)