Gary Neville thinks Liverpool players will have been galvanised after seeing Tottenham’s lineup

Follow us on Google Discover

Gary Neville thinks Liverpool players will have noticed the lack of balance in Tottenham’s starting lineup on Sunday afternoon.

Liverpool headed to North London needing a big result.

Their last two Premier League games had ended in defeat against Nottingham Forest and Leeds United.

A trip to Tottenham felt like a big game for Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp’s men just about did enough to claim the three points.

Mohamed Salah scored twice in the first half to set Liverpool on their way, with Harry Kane’s goal not enough to bring Tottenham back into the game.

Gary Neville questions Tottenham’s lack of balance

You could perhaps argue that Liverpool caught Tottenham at a very good time.

Antonio Conte went into this game without his star defender with Cristian Romero out injured.

Further forward Richarlison is still out injured and Son Heung-min suffered a fractured eye socket against Marseille in midweek.

Add in that Dejan Kulusevski and Lucas Moura were only fit for the bench and Tottenham were struggling for numbers in attack.

That meant that Conte had to go with three in midfield rather than two, bringing in Yves Bissouma alongside Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Rodrigo Bentancur.

Ivan Perisic – used almost exclusively as a wing back under Conte this season – was then asked to support Kane up front.

Tottenham had a couple of moments in the first half but only really started to threaten constantly once Kulusevski came on.

Gary Neville told Sky Sports (06/11, 5:11pm) that he felt Tottenham’s issues were clear as soon as their lineup was released.

Neville could see that Tottenham just weren’t going to be able to penetrate Liverpool with their lack of attacking quality around Kane.

Neville even feels that the Liverpool team will have been galvanised after seeing Tottenham’s lineup, noticing that Conte didn’t have the right balance on the pitch to attack Liverpool.

“When I saw the Tottenham team, I thought ‘how are they going to score a goal, how are they going to get out of their half, how are they going to penetrate or create against this Liverpool team?’” said Neville. “Players aren’t daft, those Liverpool players in that dressing room will have thought – Conte’s telling them to calm down – that they haven’t got the right balance of players on the pitch at this moment in time to be able to do anything,” he added.