Re: Tim Sherwood - Head Coach
Brendan Rodgers's clever tactics outfox Tim Sherwood's shambolic Spurs
Michael Cox
The Guardian, Sunday 30 March 2014 14.02 EDT
Raheem Sterling
Liverpool's Raheem Sterling leaves Tottenham's Gylfi Sigurdsson in his wake on his return to the side. Photograph: Alex Livesey/Getty Images
The open, attacking style of this contest was partly the result of aggressive team selections from both coaches. Liverpool's manager Brendan Rodgers played Raheem Sterling in place of Joe Allen, switching to a 4-3-3 system, while the Tottenham manager Tim Sherwood selected four attacking midfielders with only Nabil Bentaleb for protection. Both sides wanted to dominate.
This suited Liverpool, who were allowed the freedom to demonstrate intelligent, cohesive, confident attacking football throughout. The match followed the pattern of their similarly convincing home victories over Everton and Arsenal, 4-0 and 5-1 respectively; they started at tremendous speed, opened the scoring, then sat deeper before attacking directly and ruthlessly.
For all Liverpool's dominance they rarely put constant pressure upon the Spurs backline, or threw men forward relentlessly to cause overloads in the final third. They didn't have to – their front three harried Spurs' defenders, forced mistakes and created opportunities for themselves, then used the ball efficiently.
Liverpool's second goal summed it up – Steven Gerrard hit an aimless 40-yard ball at Spurs' substitute defender Michael Dawson, whose wayward square pass found Luis Suárez. The Uruguayan immediately sprinted in behind to score. He nearly scored his second before half-time, when Younès Kaboul's pass was intercepted by Sterling, who crossed and Suárez's header forced Hugo Lloris into a brilliant save. Liverpool's pressing was less obvious than against Arsenal or Manchester United, for example, but Spurs' complicity in the home side's goals was quite remarkable.
Sherwood's strategy must be blamed – the adventurous formation asked an awful lot of Bentaleb and exposed a nervous backline. It also makes little sense to deploy a wide forward, Nacer Chadli, in the number ten role with central playmaker Christian Eriksen out on the left. Eriksen was exposed for Liverpool's opener, failing to track Glen Johnson.In fairness, Sherwood has never promoted himself as a strategic visionary, preferring to fulfil the role of a Harry Redknapp-esque motivator and man-manager. His back-to-basics approach initially had a positive impact as it provided such a stark contrast from André Villas-Boas, but now the honeymoon period has passed, Tottenham's lack of strategy and cohesion has become obvious.
This Spurs performance was just as bad as the 5-0 thrashing against the same opposition at White Hart Lane in December – which resulted in Villas-Boas' dismissal. Sherwood's pre-match admission that he was 'too scared' to watch footage of that defeat suggests, in terms of preparation, he got what he deserved.