Vertonghen: Spurs would’ve beaten Liverpool if we’d done this better

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Tottenham Hotspur slipped to a 3-2 defeat against Liverpool on Tuesday evening.

Tottenham Hotspur defender Jan Vertonghen has told the Hampstead Highgate Express that his side would have beaten Liverpool if their passing had been more accurate.

Spurs suffered a 3-2 defeat to the Reds on Tuesday night and Vertonghen believes that their ball retention let them down.

Liverpool operate with a high-pressing system, but Vertonghen was making no excuses for his team’s poor distribution and felt it was solely to blame for the defeat.

“I think we deserved more,” he said. “We didn’t play our best game and I don’t think Liverpool did either. We gave them so many opportunities by giving the ball away, in the first half especially.

“They didn’t punish us every time [we made mistakes] so I don’t think the errors made the difference. But maybe if the passing was better – not only in our half but in their half – then we could have got more.”

The stats would certainly back-up Vertonghen’s opinion on last night’s contest, as Spurs fell well below their best.

Tottenham have, on average, completed 81% of their passes throughout matches this season, but they were only able to find a teammate 74% of the time against Liverpool.

That isn’t good enough to beat one of the stronger teams in the division and, put simply, Spurs had an off day in a match that they couldn’t afford to.

The fact that Tottenham were short of their best is understandable considering the energy they exerted to beat Arsenal at the weekend, but the Lilywhites will be keen to sharpen up their play in their next fixture and they can ill-afford any more slip ups between now and the end of the campaign.