Since Brendan Rodgers went to Liverpool, he started something that has continued without him and will be bound to frustrate fans of Tottenham Hotspur. Since Rodgers masterminded a 3-2 home win on the 10th of March 2012, Tottenham literally cannot get a win against Liverpool, a run that extended to 9 matches during Tuesday’s 2-1 league cup defeat.
Previous to this, Tottenham enjoyed playing Liverpool. The previous 10 results saw them losing just twice and winning 7 times.
It is not uncommon to have such runs of poor records against teams in the Premier League and you will probably be able to find numerous examples of clubs who have struggled in particular against one rival, regardless of whether the managers or the players change. There just seems to be some kind of mental block. Although, the team with the better record are normally a team that finishes higher in the league, so it can often be understandable.
But not in this case. During this time, Liverpool have only finished above Tottenham in the league once. Infact, since the 2009-2010 season, Tottenham have finished above Liverpool in 6 of the past 7 seasons – they have been consistently the better team, which makes this run a bit harder to understand.
However, it was probably one run of games that changed the momentum and started a bit of a mental block where Spurs are concerned.
LIVE: Liverpool vs Tottenham – Spurs have won only 2 of the last 11 competitive meetings between these two #LIVTOT https://t.co/eiTrsB2tlD pic.twitter.com/KHDDd4Sk6E
— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) October 25, 2016
In the 2013/14 season, Liverpool were flying. They had Daniel Sturridge, Luis Suarez and Raheem Sterling playing out of their skin and they were scoring goals for fun. It was the famous Gerrard slip that pulled the League title from their grasps and handed it to Manchester City. During this season, Liverpool beat a hapless Andre Villas-Boas’ team 0-5 at White Hart Lane which saw the Portuguese manager sacked. They were then beaten 4-0 at Anfield with Tim Sherwood in charge of the North London team.
Since Mauricio Pochettino took charge of Tottenham, he has halted this slightly. Although, Tottenham have been consistently the better team in the league both seasons, he hasn’t been able to get the win. The last 3 Premier League matches between the teams have ended 0-0, 1-1 & 1-1. All of these matches have been tight affairs with both clubs more or less canceling each other out.
Tuesday’s match in the league cup shouldn’t be read into too much as both the sides stepped on to the field with a relatively young squad. And also, with Champions League football, the league cup was low down on the list of priorities of the North London club.
However, Pochettino will be looking to do all he can to halt this run and get back to winning ways when Tottenham visit Anfield in February. If both teams continue on their current runs, this will be sure to be the most important Tottenham – Liverpool fixture for both clubs in a long time and could go a long way to deciding who finishes higher this season.