Liverpool legend Phil Thompson has named Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane and the Reds’ two full backs as the players Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino will be trying to stop on Saturday.
The two teams go head to head in the Champions League final in Madrid, and Thompson believes Messrs Salah and Mane, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson are the key men for Spurs to stop.
“I think if Pochettino goes with three at the back, then he will be worrying about Liverpool’s full-backs,” he told Sky Sports. “[Kieran] Trippier and Danny Rose will be there to negate the attacking threats of the full-backs to support Mohamed Salah and Mane, if he goes that way it will be a telling point and an important department of the pitch.
“He will have the three centre-backs on hand to put up with the three forwards. It is a way of stopping attacks but they will have their work cut out trying to stop the front three along with Alexander-Arnold and Robertson.”
OPINION
Thompson is bang on, here. If Spurs go with three centre halves and two full backs, which they are wont to do, then it will be a sign that Pochettino is trying to limit the impact of Liverpool’s two marauding full backs. He’ll send Trippier and Rose out with instructions to press high up the pitch and try and clamp down Alexander-Arnold and Robertson. Whether they’ll be successful in that remains to be seen. However, it’s not a bad strategy. Still, the two Liverpool full backs will get forward and they will pose an attacking threat, no matter what Pochettino’s tactics are. The problem from a Tottenham perspective will then be that Liverpool’s midfielders will use the gap in behind the full backs to release Salah, Mane and co. The Spurs centre backs will then attempt to cover that area, but they may not be mobile enough to do so. It will certainly be an interesting clash, that’s for sure.
