The match report
FULL TIME: Tottenham Hotspur 0-0 Liverpool
A poor game, and a point apiece. Jurgen Klopp seems pretty happy with it, not least because Liverpool have kept their first clean sheet in a wee while. In fact, he makes his way onto the pitch and quietly congratulates his players, a faint smile playing across his face. Spurs will feel more frustrated: they just about shaded the game in terms of quality and chances, though that’s not saying a whole lot. The long wait for Klopp’s debut, and all the concomitant hype, almost guaranteed this scoreline, didn’t it.
Updated
90 min +2: Milner goes on a dribble down the right. Just before he reaches the box, he’s clattered to the floor by Alli. A free kick in a dangerous position, and a chance for Liverpool to load the box. Moreno goes direct, and clatters the free kick in to the wall. That’s a dismal decision.
90 min: Kane bombs down the left. Lucas slides in from the right and gets a bit of the ball, but a lot more of the man. He’s booked. It’s all in the middle of the park, so the free kick doesn’t amount to much. There will be three added minutes of this.
89 min: Ibe makes off down the left, then cuts inside. He lays off to Allen, who sets up Can, the best part of 30 yards out but in space. Can sends a well-struck effort meant for the bottom-left, but a couple of feet wide. Not the worst effort.
87 min: Both teams make a change. Coutinho is replaced by Ibe, then Townsend comes on for Lamela.
85 min: Eriksen bursts in from the left, across the front of the Liverpool box. Nobody in a red shirt wishes to risk a tackle. The ball’s laid off in the middle for Kane, who is in space on the edge of the area in a central position. Kane cocks his leg and, after what seems like an age, shoots. He must score, but it’s straight at Mignolet, who turns the ball round the right-hand post for a corner. Which is cleared. Kane had Liverpool at his mercy there.
83 min: It’s all scrappy passes and scrappy fouls. Neither team seem capable of stringing anything together right now.
Updated
81 min: Lallana is replaced by Allen. He’s not one for completing games, is he, Adam Lallana?
Updated
78 min: Milner clatters into Rose, a 50-50 ball in the middle of the Liverpool half. That’s a foul, albeit an accidental one, a late clatter. The referee waves play on, and Liverpool fizz up the other end. Coutinho rolls the ball wide left for Origi, who enters the box and lashes a shot on target from a tight angle. Lloris is right behind it, justice done.
76 min: Coutinho sashays down the inside-left channel, glides inside, and curls a pass to Milner, who is in space on the right-hand side of the Spurs D. A great chance to shoot, but he miscontrols woefully, allowing Spurs to break at speed. Kane wins a corner down the left off Clyne. From the corner, Skrtel clears, and Walker returns the ball for a conversion in the rugby style. Both teams are creating half-chances, only to spurn them with extreme prejudice.
74 min: Milner, Lallana and Can dance their way down the right. A few flicks and feints, and Liverpool nearly open Spurs up, but the move breaks down with the final pass and Rose clears. A bit better by Liverpool, but it’s not exactly flowing football.
73 min: Walker has injured himself while extending to tackle Can. While he gets treatment, a few of Liverpool’s players congregate by the dugout. They’re fed water, and bollocked severely by Klopp, who shouts at them quite a lot. Marvellous.
Updated
71 min: Kane cuts inside from the right and has a whack from distance. The shot’s blocked and squirts through to Mignolet.
69 min: Clyne romps into space down the right. His high cross is deflected out to Can, who thinks about shooting but doesn’t. Then Lallana has a dribble into the box down the left, but is forced to check back. Finally Can feeds Coutinho on the right-hand side of the Spurs D. It’s blocked at source.
68 min: Lallana twists and bustles down the right and into the area. He falls down in front of Alli as he enters the area, and claims a penalty, but come off it. A corner’s his only prize, and that’s a waste of time.
66 min: This game is all pressing, no passing. A gegenmess.
64 min: Rose is robbed by Origi, but the striker hesitates as he jogs down the inside-right and the chance is gone. Then Spurs go up the other end through Alli down the left. Alli loops a cross into the middle. Lamela attempts to contort his body for a Zidane-style volley, but can’t connect.
63 min: At the moment it’s fast, frantic and not very good. The crowd are pretty quiet as a result.
61 min: Coutinho has been quiet today, but he makes a determined run down the inside-left channel to earn his side a corner. But his set piece doesn’t even beat the front man. It’s not happening for Liverpool up front right now. Those first 15-20 minutes seem an awful long time ago.
59 min: Lamela is booked for crumping his knee into Moreno’s lower back. He can’t complain, and in fairness doesn’t really bother.
56 min: Spurs knock it around the front of the Liverpool box, but the visitors hold firm. Eventually the ball’s worked right to Walker, who sends a daisycutter skittering towards the bottom right. Mignolet does very well to gather that one. It’s not been a high-quality half, so far. Plenty of it remaining. Positive thinking.
55 min: Origi bustles down the inside-left channel. He’s held up and unable to shoot, but lays back to Lucas, who has options either side. Instead of picking a pass, he tries to thread a shot into the bottom right from 25 yards. There’s a reason Lucas hasn’t scored for five years, he illustrates it perfectly with this pea-roller.
53 min: Can works his way in from the left and earns a cheap free kick out of a clumsy Alli. Coutinho swings the set piece into the Spurs box for Skrtel, level with the right-hand post ten yards out, but Vertonghen batters a header clear.
52 min: Lallana has a look from 25 yards down the inside-left channel, but Alderweireld closes him down quickly enough.
50 min: Liverpool make an awful meal of clearing a simple loose ball down their left. Moreno and Can redefine faffing, in a process that takes nearly a minute, before Lamela lets them off the hook with a pointless tug on Moreno’s shirt. Spurs were pressing Liverpool back there, and the visitors were panicking.
48 min: Skrtel bowls Kane over as the pair contest a long Rose throw down the left. A chance for Spurs to load the box. Eriksen takes. And his inswinger flies straight through to Mignolet, on the line. The keeper gathers, though Alderweireld was inches away from connecting on the edge of the six-yard box. He had a chance there. Liverpool didn’t look very certain of themselves there.
Updated
47 min: All a bit scrappy right now.
The second half gets underway!
Spurs get the ball rolling again. No changes. Milner is immediately winded by Alli. Then a sleepy Liverpool are caught on the back foot, Eriksen making off down the right. Skrtel clears his cross.
Half-time entertainment: Some classic matches between Spurs and Liverpool, as told by the Joy of Six. Includes Dave Mackay taking a 5-2 defeat as a “personal affront” and tailoring a response accordingly.
HALF TIME: Tottenham Hotspur 0-0 Liverpool
Origi makes off down the right, and fires a low cross into the area. Coutinho nearly latches onto it, but Vertonghen slides in to ensure he can’t get a shot away. And that’s pretty much that for the opening period. A half of two halves, that. Liverpool came out of the blocks flying. Spurs were by far the better side once they got a foothold in the game. Klopp claps his team off, though you sense his heart’s not quite in the platitude. It all makes for a fascinating second half. Don’t go anywhere!
45 min: Lamela robs Moreno down the Spurs right. He slips the ball down the wing for Alli, who swings a low ball to the near post. Kane is in an offside position, but Skrtel, sliding in, concedes a corner, and Spurs are awarded the set piece. Nothing much occurs from it, Dembele lumping over hopelessly from 25 yards down the right.
43 min: Origi busies himself to win a ball in the centre circle, then rushes towards the Spurs box. He lays off for Can, whose shot is blocked. Can feeds the quiet Coutinho down the left. Coutinho attempts a curler into the right-hand portion of the net, but that’s easy for Lloris.
41 min: Clyne and Skrtel hesitate next to a bouncing ball down the Spurs left. After you. No, after you. Njie steps in and nips off with it. He drops a shoulder, cutting in from the wing, and lashes a stunning, dipping shot inches over the bar. Mignolet might have got to that were it on target, but there were no guarantees. Liverpool have gone right off the boil. Their manager, by contrast, may be starting to simmer.
Updated
39 min: A couple of corners down the right for Spurs, Alli proving himself very troublesome. Liverpool eventually clear. But the home side are very much on top now, Liverpool’s early high-tempo sass no longer in evidence.
Updated
37 min: Eriksen threads a pass down the left for Kane, who skates past a flailing Skrtel and is clear in the area. He whacks low, but Mignolet parries magnificently with his feet. The ball breaks to Alli, who chests down on the edge of the box and shoots goalwards. Sakho throws himself in front of the ball, John Terry style, a magnificent block. Spurs recycle. Eriksen’s cross from the left is claimed by Mignolet. Spurs so close to going ahead. Brilliant last-ditch defence by Liverpool.
35 min: Milner finally goes in the book. He’s done nothing much there, kicked by Rose as the full back clears upfield. He’s unlucky there, but could easily have been yellow-carded earlier, so it’s swings and roundabouts.
34 min: Origi makes a nuisance of himself down the right and wins a corner off Rose. Milner hits it long. Skrtel rises and meets it with a downward header. Kane sweeps a clearance.
32 min: Eriksen takes a belt from 30 yards. He’s looking for the top left. The ball balloons off Skrtel’s face, and out on the right for a corner. From the set piece, Vertonghen can’t keep his header down from 12 yards, under pressure from Sakho.
31 min: Now Origi scampers down the right and very nearly latches onto a pass on the edge of the Spurs box, but Lloris is out quickly to blooter clear. It’s not quite sparked off, this game, and yet there could easily have been a goal or two at each end.
30 min: Spurs are right in this now, though. Eriksen sliderules a pass down the middle of the park, and would have released Kane had the striker been on the front foot. A relieved Mignolet comes out to gather.
29 min: Here’s the other side of Mignolet, though. Lallana gives the ball away to Kane, who slides a pass to the right, where Njie is in acres on the edge of the Liverpool box. Njie hits a screamer towards the top left, but Mignolet, at full stretch, fingertips the ball round the post. One corner leads to another, and that’s that.
27 min: A couple of slapstick moments involving Mignolet. First he’s very nearly closed down when kicking by Kane. Then, as he attempts to gather a simple ball to the right of his goal, he falls onto his knees, slides hysterically across the turf awhile, and very nearly concedes a needless corner.
26 min: It’s descended into a scrappy nonsense, this. Though Pochettino and Klopp will both be satisfied with the relentless manner in which their teams are going about their business.
24 min: In the stands, Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge is handing out sweeties. Jordan Henderson is very eager to snaffle one. Look at his smile! The simple pleasures of life. Yes, there’s a bit of a lull on the pitch.
21 min: Kane shows some twinkle toes down the right, reaching the byline and flicking a clever ball back towards Njie, who is hovering on the penalty spot. Moreno and Sakho launch a pincer movement to crowd out Njie before the ball reaches him. But that’s much better from the home side.
20 min: Finally a period of possession for Spurs. It’s all in the middle of the park, so as sterile as it comes, but baby steps and all that. And at least they’re now playing at their own rhythm.
18 min: Milner upends Rose down the left. That’s effectively a corner, and a good talking to for Milner, who is treading a fine line this afternoon. He’s lucky not to go in the book. The set piece is easily cleared by Liverpool, Kane unable to make an impression by connecting at the far post.
16 min: Sakho gives the ball away in the midfield, allowing Eriksen to chase after a pass down the left. Mignolet rushes out of the area and slide tackles the midflielder. It’s a clean challenge, though Eriksen lands on his head. Even the notoriously flat-footed keeper appears to have been energised by Klopp.
Updated
15 min: Liverpool are certainly playing with a high tempo. Not entirely unexpected. Though at the moment, Spurs are unable to cope with the tactic, and giving the ball away a lot. The home side are struggling to retain any sort of possession.
13 min: Clyne and Milner triangulate in a very pretty fashion down the right. Briskly, too. Eventually Lallana is sprung into a little space on the edge of the box, but his eyes, lighting up, are a lot brighter than his shot, which is a witless slash straight at Lloris, who claims with a yawn.
11 min: Njie comes on for Chadli. It’s been a busy start to this game. Spurs haven’t got a foothold as of yet.
10 min: Milner hits the corner deep. Can eyebrows it on. Origi, six yards out and level with the left-hand post, hammers a header onto the crossbar. Lloris gets a flick on the rebound. Origi attempts to chest into the empty net, but the keeper’s deflection has confused him royally. Eventually the flag goes up for an offside. Spurs escape. Liverpool should be leading.
Updated
9 min: It looks as though Chadli is unable to continue. Spurs are currently down to ten men. Origi looks up for this, and runs down the middle of the park before slipping the ball wide right for Lallana. Another corner. From which ...
7 min: Now the busy Lallana wins a corner down the left. Liverpool’s second is headed clear by Kane, but soon enough Milner is coming at Spurs down the right. Can and Sakho get in each other’s way at the far post, and once again Spurs just about manage to clear. Milner tries to get things going again down the inside-right, exchanging passes with Lallana, but the move breaks down and eventually Milner concedes a foul on Chadli, the period of pressure instantly relieved. Liverpool have started well.
5 min: Lallana chases after an Origi flick-down along the right, and earns himself a corner. The set piece is lumped into the mixer, where Skrtel, then Can, both win headers. Neither effort has any meat on it, though, and Lloris claims easily enough.
4 min: A long ball down the Liverpool right. For a second it looks like Origi’s outmuscled Vertonghen, and will be turning into space, but he’s blown for a combination of offside and excessive force. Spurs go up the other end, Chadli making good down the left and crossing into the Liverpool area. Skrtel heads clear.
2 min: Both teams struggling to keep control of the ball on a crisp, breezy morning. Klopp - who had started the game draped over a seat in the dugout in the casual style - is already up on the touchline, having a good old look and think.
And we're off!
Liverpool get the ball rolling, and lose it within ten seconds. For Klopp, the only way is up.
Updated
The teams are out! Spurs in their crisp, beautiful white shirts, Liverpool in their enigmatic red. Klopp and Pochettino share a warm handshake and a joke. We’ll be off in a minute. “I am afraid to say that your German is like Klopp’s English,” begins the surname-free Chris, who is giving this Google Translate user far too much credit. “No-one would ever state Es wird geschehen! or Guten Nachmittag!. Both is as English as Klopp’s presser was 100% German straight into English. (I was the hairsplitter regarding the “The Normal/Ordinary One” comment.)“
Today’s half-and-half scarf: Because where’s the sense in fussin’ an’ a-feudin’?
♩ ♪ ♮ ♯ Come on people now / Smile on your brother / Everybody get together / Try to love one another right now. ♫ ♬ ♭
Other football managers are available. And here’s Pochettino, the manager of the month, who is looking very happy and relaxed. “Today’s game will be exciting, for all that’s happening at Liverpool. We’re going to enjoy the game today. Jurgen is a great manager who showed very good things in Dortmund. It’s great for us, a good challenge. We’ve watched a lot of clips from Dortmund, yes.” A real sense that the two managers - both very cheery - fancy their chances today. Which augurs well for fun. Fun and happiness and cheer. This is sport, ladies and gentlemen!
Klopp gives his first pre-match interview as Liverpool boss. It’s a freeform jazz piece. “I feel excitement, I feel pressure, I feel opportunity, I feel the cold. We have had three exercises together. It’s enough. We know we play today against a really good team, it’s difficult for us today. We don’t want to play like they expect us to play. We want to be active. You can see it in their eyes. We have to develop our football. We are here to get a good result.”
Sturridge’s injury - a swelling caused by a clatter with Jordan Ibe in training - is “not too serious”, but in the wake of the recent injuries to Ings and Gomez, they’re taking no chances. He also went out of his way to talk up Origi, who he apparently wanted to sign while at Borussia Dortmund, only to be priced out of it by his new club. Klopp finishes the interview with a smile and a delicate sing-song “thank you”. There’s nice! And so melodic.
Klopp’s debut comes with added poignancy now. As one manager arrives in Liverpool, another of the city’s true greats takes his leave. The sad news broke this morning of the death of most successful Everton boss of all time, Howard Kendall. Part of the title-winning Holy Trinity as a player in 1970, alongside Alan Ball and Colin Harvey, he went on to dominate English football as a manager in the mid-1980s, bringing domestic and European glory to Goodison. A true giant of Merseyside football, and one of the most likeable too. A few hymns will ping around the rafters of Goodison Park today.
Jurgen Klopp, with his first selection as Liverpool manager, makes two changes to the final team Brendan Rodgers picked. Danny Ings is injured, as is ... Daniel Sturridge. ‘Twas ever thus. Sturridge is being wrapped in cotton wool having suffered a minor knee problem. Replacing the unfortunate striking duo: Adam Lallana and, making his first Premier League start, Divock Origi.
As for Maurico Pochettino’s 69th selection as Tottenham Hotspur boss? Two changes as well. Danny Rose returns from injury, while Mousa Dembele returns to the midfield. Ben Davies drops to the bench, while Eric Dier is suspended.
Updated
The teams
Tottenham Hotspur: Lloris, Walker, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Rose, Dembele, Alli, Lamela, Eriksen, Chadli, Kane.
Subs: Vorm, N’Jie, Trippier, Townsend, Wimmer, Winks, Davies.
Liverpool: Mignolet, Clyne, Skrtel, Sakho, Moreno, Can, Lucas, Milner, Coutinho, Lallana, Origi.
Subs: Bogdan, Toure, Allen, Ibe, Randall, Sinclair, Teixeira.
Referee: Craig Pawson (South Yorkshire)
Guten Nachmittag, north London!
Liverpool have a mighty fine recent track record against Tottenham Hotspur. They’ve won the last five games between the two clubs to the aggregate tune of 18-4. On the last two occasions they’ve visited White Hart Lane, they registered spectacular 5-0 and 3-0 victories. The Reds have enjoyed the last couple of years against the Lilywhites all right.
But times change. Luis Suarez, Raheem Sterling and Steven Gerrard have moved on. Mario Balotelli is away on loan. Jon Flanagan is injured. And - you might have caught wind of this - Brendan Rodgers has been sacked. Rodgers won five out of his six games against Spurs as Liverpool boss, his only defeat coming back in November 2012, Aaron Lennon and Gareth Bale the Tottenham heroes that day. So in this respect, the new man Jurgen Klopp has quite the reputation to live up to. No pressure, Jurgen!
Spurs will be of the opinion that now is not a good time to play Liverpool. In the wake of Klopp’s appointment, everyone associated with the Reds is giddy with possibility, on head-swirling honeymoon, dreaming dreamy dreams of that new-manager bounce. There’s nothing in football like this particular rush of excitement and anticipation.
But then this isn’t a good time for Liverpool to be playing Spurs, either. Liverpool haven’t kept a clean sheet in eight games, while Tottenham have the most parsimonious defence in the division. Not only that, Spurs are beginning to click as an attacking force, and in their last home game gave title favourites Manchester City an awful 4-1 hiding. One suspects Klopp would have hand-selected a far easier match for his debut.
Both teams have men down. Tottenham must do without the injured Son Heung-min, Ryan Mason, Nabil Bentaleb and Alex Pritchard, and the suspended Eric Dier, though Danny Rose is fit again. Liverpool lost Joe Gomez and Danny Ings to long term injury this week, while Christian Benteke, Jordan Henderson and Roberto Firmino are still unavailable.
So much might depend on what the star strikers come up with. Daniel Sturridge has recently returned from a long lay-off in swashbuckling form, in terms of goals if not overall performance. The opposite is true of Harry Kane, who has only one league goal to show for some otherwise superlative shift-work. Kane and Sturridge are both a delight to watch, eyes in and on song, so we could be in for a real treat this lunchtime. And that’s before we factor in Herr Klopp, who will be central to the telling of today’s story whatever happens.
It promises to be a memorable occasion at White Hart Lane, as one of the most highly regarded managers in the world game makes his Premier League debut. The visitors will be up for it! The hosts are more than ready to face them down! It’s on! Es wird geschehen!
Kick off: 12.45pm in London, 1.45pm in the Black Forest.
Updated
.jpg?w=600)
