Premier League 2019/20: Tottenham vs Liverpool – tactical analysis

The most highly anticipated match of the Premier League fixture list this weekend saw league leaders Liverpool travel to the Tottenham Hotspur stadium in search of another win. Any game involving a Mourinho side against a side that you would consider superior sets up an interesting tactical battle, and this game was no different. Mourinhos approach was typical Mourinho, which did cause him to face some in my opinion, unwarranted criticism. Mourinhos tactical set-up was set out to nullify Liverpool and in large parts in terms of build-up, it did. In this tactical analysis, I will analyse the flaws and benefits within Tottenhams defensive system and look at how it affected Liverpools build-up play.

Lineups

Liverpool lined up in their usual 4-3-3 and stuck to their typical build-up structure, while Tottenhams shape fluctuated often between a 4-4-1-1, 5-4-1, 5-3-2 and a 4-5-1 depending on the position of the ball and position of Liverpool, as I will cover in detail throughout this analysis.

Tottenhams defensive system

Tottenham employed an asymmetrical 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1, with Serge Aurier being tasked with marking Andy Robertson regardless of his positioning. Therefore, if Robertson was slightly deeper, Tottenham went into a fairly conventional 4-4-2, and if Robertson pushed higher as we can see in the image below, Tottenham went into a 5-3-2, which could go into a 5-4-1 depending on the positioning of Dele Alli. This meant that Japhet Tanganga often was tasked with dealing with Sadio Mané in the half-space.

In this example below, Tottenham