Tottenham missed out on a place in the Carabao Cup final after falling to a 4-0 defeat against Liverpool on Thursday evening. Leading 1-0 from the first leg courtesy of Lucas Bergvall's late winner, Ange Postecoglou handed a Spurs debut to new signing Kevin Danso but fellow new arrival Mathys Tel had to settle for a place on the bench.
There was to be no start for Bergvall either as the boss went with a midfield three of Rodrigo Bentancur, Yves Bissouma and Pape Matar Sarr. As expected, Liverpool put Spurs under plenty of pressure in the first half as they looked to level things up on aggregate.
Dominik Szoboszlai saw a goal chalked off for offside midway inside the opening 45 minutes, but Cody Gakpo's effort not long after was to count as he finished off at the back post with a low effort. Spurs were to receive a blow just prior to half-time with Richarlison going off with an injury as new signing Tel replaced him.
Trailing 1-0 at the break, Spurs' task was to get even harder on 51 minutes as Mohamed Salah emphatically converted from the penalty spot after Antonin Kinsky had fouled Darwin Nunez. It was to get even worse for Tottenham in the final 15 minutes as Szoboszlai scored with a neat finish after a fine pass from Conor Bradley before Virgil van Dijk headed in from a corner.
Here are five things we spotted in the game on Merseyside:
The Gray decision
A full Tottenham debut for Danso always looked a possibility going on Postecoglou's tendency to throw new signings in at the very first opportunity. Amid the prospect of the Austrian international coming straight in, question marks surrounded Archie Gray's place in the team given that he is a midfielder by trade.
Gray has filled in exceptionally well at centre-back over the past two months, duly starting every game for Tottenham since the 1-1 draw against Rangers in the Europa League at the beginning of December. Although Gray has youth on his side as he is only 18 years of age, a rest for him was always going to be required due to the amount of minutes he has played in such a short space of time.
Gray wasn't the player to drop out of the backline to accommodate Danso, though, as Pedro Porro finally got a breather for the first time since the Boxing Day defeat at Nottingham Forest. The ex-Leeds United man instead kept his place in the side and shifted across to right-back with Porro on the bench.
Postecoglou's decision to stick with Gray just shows how highly he rates him as many head coaches would have opted to keep Porro in the side instead of the Durham-born ace. There was to be a change to the starlet's position in the second half as he switched over to left-back following the introduction of the Spaniard, before later switching across to centre-back after Ben Davies made way.
Richarlison vs Van Dijk
Richarlison and Virgil van Dijk had a first-half battle at Anfield on Thursday evening. Previously rivals due to the Brazilian's time as an Everton player, the duo were involved in it right from the off in the semi-final tie.
In the opening minutes of the game, the Liverpool defender caught Richarlison on his chin with an elbow and that resulted in Tottenham's No.9 going to ground. Van Dijk went unpunished for the incident and Richarlison was not impressed at all by the challenge from the Dutchman and let his feelings be known.
The duo continued to share words after that and there was another moment to follow again shortly after when Richarlison went to ground just outside the Spurs box when going for the ball with his opponent. Van Dijk offered his hand out to help him back up, only to then withdraw it when Richarlison put his hand out to accept the ex-Southampton man's invitation.
Richarlison anger
Richarlison's night was unfortunately to come to an end just before half-time. Sprinting to try and keep in Gray's long pass that was heading out of play down Tottenham's right, moments later the Brazilian went to the ground and it looked there and then that his night was over.
Injuries have proved extremely problematic for the 27-year-old since his move to N17 and he reacted to his latest setback by beating the turf with the palm of his hand three times. Receiving treatment on his calf from one of the club's medical staff, he was in no position to carry on and Tel duly prepared for his Spurs debut.
With Dominic Solanke currently on the sidelines through injury, Postecoglou will be keeping his fingers crossed that Richarlison's latest injury is not a serious one.
Midfield woe
Bergvall could count himself incredibly unlucky not to start the semi-final tie at Anfield following some superb showings in midfield of late. Instead, he had to watch on as Bentancur, Bissouma and Sarr got the nod alongside each other in the middle of the park.
Injuries have been disastrous for Postecoglou over the course of the season and Thursday night was in fact only the second time that the aforementioned trio had started together. Their last appearance together from the off came on Spurs' last visit to Anfield when they lost 4-2.
It did appear that the trio had barely played next to each other as they failed to lay a glove on their counterparts in the first half and struggled to keep hold of the ball. It was very much one-way traffic and Liverpool found it all too easy against Tottenham's midfielders as they created plenty of openings.
Gakpo's goal all came about after Bissouma's pass to Sarr was behind the Senegalese ace and that started the move that saw the Dutchman convert at the back post. Bissouma and Sarr were to be hooked on 57 minutes as Bergvall and Porro were introduced, with Djed Spence moving into a right-wing role, Dejan Kulusevski into midfield and Gray to left-back as the visitors looked for a way back into the contest.
Tottenham's midfield woes on the night could be summed up by one piece of play that involved Bentancur dallying on the ball when having time and space to get Spurs moving forward. The Uruguayan hesitated as Spurs looked to forge an attack and that allowed Curtis Jones to nip in and stop Spurs progressing upfield.
It was so frustrating from a Tottenham perspective and very much a sign of their night after delivering an incredibly meek performance on a huge evening for the club. The team didn't even have a shot on target across the 90 minutes and now they must find a way of bouncing back at Villa Park this weekend.
No Scarlett
One week on from his Europa League heroics after netting his first Tottenham goal against Elfsborg, Dane Scarlett was not part of the Spurs squad for the game at Anfield. Spurs did thankfully have an attacking option in Tel to call upon following his move from Bayern Munich, however.
The reason for Scarlett's absence was due to the fact that he is cup tied after playing for Oxford United earlier in the competition. The frontman played 83 minutes of Oxford's 1-0 defeat against Coventry City in August, thus rendering him ineligible for Tottenham's cup showdown against Liverpool.
Scarlett will also not be available to play for Tottenham this weekend against Aston Villa after his appearance in Oxford's FA Cup third round defeat at Exeter City at the start of January. It means he can only feature in the Premier League and Europa League for Spurs in what remains of the campaign.
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