Tottenham Hotspur do not like playing Liverpool, having lost to the Merseyside giants 84 times since records began. Even in the rare periods where the team in white has been more successful, Liverpool more often than not get the upper hand. All but the most blindly optimistic Spurs supporter would have felt a defeat inevitable.
Even sidestepping who the away side were in the last fixture at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium in 2025: Spurs are a side that loses most matches at home these days, Liverpool needed a win with two huge summer signings stuttering (enter Dr. Tottenham), and the Spurs board have this week briefed a vote of confidence in Thomas Frank - often the death knell to a manager's custodianship at any club.
Here are four things we learnt during the latest defeat at home.
The crowd are not to blame
Thomas Frank has made a lot of headlines recently with defensive comments when questions have rightfully arisen about his ability to arrest Spurs' decline (which, in fairness, is more than half a decade in the making). He has made catty comments about the situation he inherited from his predecessor, diminished the achievement of last seasons' Europa League win, and far worse, pointed the finger at the home support.
Having spent nearly 4 decades sacrificing large parts of my free time in the West Stand of each home ground in N17, I know that when the Spurs supporters feel disenchanted, the atmosphere becomes stale, passive aggressive, or outright hostile. This has only been exacerbated by the rising ticket prices correlating negatively with the least enjoyable side seen in these parts since David Pleat was last at the helm.
However, on this occasion, the home crowd were positive. They backed the players and, having actually seen a few decent attacking moves for the first time in eons, were willing the side on even at 2-0 down. Perhaps the dreadful refereeing performance helped create a siege mentality, or perhaps those in attendance didn't want to give their manager or Pedro Porro anywhere to look but themselves, but even Thomas Frank admitted that in those final stages the crowd almost "sucked the ball into the net".
Alas, it wasn't to be, and Spurs recorded their 5th league defeat in 9 home matches this season, a game punctuated with more perplexingly negative substitutions, more inexcusable mistakes from apparently seasoned international footballers, and more faltering from highly celebrated summer signings.
Being frank, Thomas, it might be that how this crowd expresses itself is quite irrelevant to what level of performance you can inspire.
The Spurs players are frustrated
This is a very unhappy collection of footballers. The disdain shown towards their own crowd with the strange half-time walk offs, van de Ven's constant fury against Slavia Prague and his petulance towards Frank against Chelsea, and several public sightings of disrespect from Djed Spence (often when substituted). The same Tottenham players who were on top of the world last May are now visibly outside their collective window of tolerance.
Today, this manifested in two completely avoidable red cards. The first came when Spurs sadly looked like they might be the better team on the day, with Xavi Simons, so desperate to show he can make it in this league, charging at a turning Virgil van Dijk and catching his international captain's ankle with his studs.
The resultant red card was very much a slow motion red card, there really wasn't much impact or recklessness. In fact, the victim was completely unpunished for a far worse example of this on Dominic Solanke last season.
However, I do wonder if Xavi Simons, playing well and in a side that wasn't so desperate for some fortune, would have been quite so aggressive in his approach. To me this was characteristic of a young player trying too hard. Similar to the 18-year-old Gareth Bale being sent off against Stoke once upon a time for a similarly tempestuous act.
Cristian Romero, on the other hand, was idiotic. He had just won a free kick from which Spurs might have equalised had they had their best header of the ball on the pitch; he was on a yellow card for his complaints about Hugo Ekitike's shove for the second Liverpool goal; he was right in front of the referee.
Of course Cristian Romero, in this situation, is going to flick he leg out to kick the player that has just fouled him. If Simons' red card came from desperation, Romero's came from bone idle stupidity.
Both were the behaviour of players frustrated by a season where the Spurs crowd's reverence for this team has turned to anger, the football has gone from poor to pointless, and the side is spinning on a carousel of defeat after defeat.
There is a reason Romero plays for Spurs
If it seems like the Argentinian centre-back is getting especially bad treatment, it's only because he's one of the biggest disappointments. There are plenty of Spurs players who have, and are, performing worse this season, but none with the same level of expectation on them. Romero is the captain. He is supposedly the best player and he has been made the club's highest earner with his recent new contract.
It is only fair to expect that in a time of crisis, he would be the player to stand up and drag the rest with him. That is was great captains do. Romero doesn't have the excuse of youth any more and he has been at Spurs since 2021.
He has won a World Cup in that time and is in the peak years of his career. If he has rightfully received plaudits for his heroics away to Newcastle, he needs admonishment for matches like this where he gifts the opposition two goals.
Do not pass straight out to the opposition press, for a start. And then, if you feel hands in your back as a cross comes in, be stronger. Once the ball hits the back of the net, you might get the free kick but you might not.
Prioritising doing your job and reading the flight of the ball over gamesmanship should be obvious. I would be more forgiving if it wasn't for the similar recent horror show against PSG, or if the cherry on this performance wasn't the already discussed sending off.
Romero has some games where he seems top class, but he is not consistent and he is running out of time to become consistent. Therefore, it can be concluded that he is not top class, he is ok - often dreadful and occasionally magnificent. At this point if he has a season where it all comes together and cuts this sloppiness out, I'd be inclined to chalk it up to a purple patch, an anomaly, rather than the real Romero.
If he needs the team to be on form so he can look the part, then he's just not as good as his PR team would have us think, and that is why he plays for Spurs instead of one of the giant clubs of world football. I'm inclined to suggest that Spurs should cash in before the rest of world football catches on, but his recent contract signing might just be because he didn't have a better option available than staying in North London.
If this seems rash or reactive, I'd just point out at at this time last season, Spurs had conceded fewer goals than they have now (even with the reputedly defensively clueless Ange Postecoglou in charge) and that was with Cristian Romero having missed 5 matches. Only one of those 5 saw Spurs concede more than 1 goal: Liverpool at home.
Richarlison offers hope
It's well documented that Spurs do not create much by way of goal scoring opportunities these days. Even strikers of top pedigree would struggle in the current Spurs side, thanks to a combination of the Thomas Frank's tactics, and the Lilywhites' more consistently effective attackers being either out of form or injured. Enter Richarlison, a figure who divides the Spurs fan base.
At his worst, Richarlison seems clumsy, a poor decision maker and lacking in the physical attributes to really contribute. At his best, the Brazilian World Cup hopeful is a determined, opportunistic forward who works best on instinct. Inside 3 minutes on the pitch against Liverpool, this was the Richarlison we saw.
Spurs' number 9 immediately harassed and hassled the Liverpool defence and very quickly had halved the deficit, taking advantage of confusion in the penalty area, air-kicks and trips aplenty, to sweep home a loose ball. Not long later Richarlison may even have equalised after Brennan Johnson slid the ball through to him, but was undone by his own lack of pace and are rare moment of composure from the Liverpool centre backs.
Richarlison isn't polished, he isn't particularly consistent and when his confidence takes a hit, he looks out of place anywhere near a football pitch. However, when he plays consistently, when he has no option but to attack on the front foot because the situation commands it, he is Spurs most likely route to a goal, and his 7 goals this season in a side that gives it's forwards next to no service is proof of this.
What Richarlison needs is either a foil to help create the space he needs, or a team behind him that can get the ball into dangerous areas. That is not a slight on 'Richy', because this describes most but the very elite forwards in the game.
He is one of the few current Spurs players doing his job to a decent level, and the manager should be looking at how best to accommodate this with his selections elsewhere in the side. Goals win games after all.
