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No Tottenham Hotspur players were as useful as a well-placed firedog .gif.
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Mousa Dembele: If there was a bright spot from Saturday’s performance, Moose was it. Despite the constant press from Liverpool, Dembele coped admirably with it and did his best to transition the ball from defense to attack. Spurs’ midfield was still overrun, but it wasn’t the fault of Dembele, who played quite well.
Toby Alderweireld: Despite Spurs’ defense giving up two goals in two minutes, there isn’t a whole lot to complain about with Toby, who put in a yeoman’s effort over the 90 minutes, and often bailing out Dier. Toby earned his first yellow of the season in a tactical foul to prevent another Liverpool big chance. Otherwise, he just doesn’t put a foot wrong, ever.
Son Heung-Min: Yes, you can criticize Sonny for not tracking back or helping out Ben Davies on defense, but that seemed to be tactical instruction from Pochettino. Otherwise, Sonny was one of the only Spurs attackers who was worth a damn on Saturday. Probably should’ve squared to Kane on his one shot on target in the first half, but it wasn’t an awful effort regardless.
Christian Eriksen: Bless him, he tried. But Eriksen seemed mostly discombobulated by Liverpool’s press and was out of sync for the majority of the match. His free kicks were on point, though.
Harry Kane: Harry was stymied by a lack of service, but he also didn’t seem to drop deep enough to help transition the ball into dangerous areas or feed his teammates.
Kyle Walker: The lack of efficacy in his defensive teammates meant that Walker spent a lot more time on his back heels and less time pushing forward. Easily the second best Spurs defender on the day, though.
Dele Alli: Liverpool effectively controlled the midfield and prevented easy transitions to attack, which was directly to Dele detriment. Dele responded by turning to petulance out of frustration. It’s amazing he didn’t get carded.
Hugo Lloris: Let in two goals (neither of which he could do much about) but had a bunch of solid saves as well. His distribution continued to look shaky at times, but without him Spurs lose by five, so...
Harry Winks: Came in for Dembele and was an effective passer after Spurs had already stopped the bleeding, but didn’t have enough time to really make a huge impact. With his creativity and passing, I would’ve liked to see him start alongside Dembele instead of as his sub.
Ben Davies: He was bad. Like, BAD bad. And yet, I don’t think it was all his fault. His matchup against Mane was one that everyone could see would be problematic a mile away, and Pochettino seemingly set him up to fail. I almost feel bad for him.
Victor Wanyama: Putting a defensive midfielder with a suspect passing ability and a record of underachieving in a two-man pivot in the lineup against a high pressing team on the road was a dumb, dumb decision. But Victor didn’t do himself any favors. Had problems completing the simplest of passes, and Spurs needed someone who could create in this match, not destroy.
Eric Dier: Yikes. Had a shocking give-away that led to Liverpool’s second goal, and he was abused by Mane and Firmino almost as much as Davies was. He’s better than this, but Jan can’t come back soon enough.
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No Tottenham Hotspur players were as bad as a Penn Gillette .gif. But Lordy, a few of them weren’t that far away.
Vincent Janssen & Moussa Sissoko