Given Tottenham's 1-1 victory at the Bernabeu they'll be confident going into this game. We should also be confident after thrashing Maribor 7-0. Yes, Maribor aren't anything special but they are a decent football team and we made them look terrible. Remember the last time in the Champions League when we had a similarly unknown and unthreatening team in Ludogorets? We drew 2-2 away and needed a last minute goal to beat them at Anfield. If you beat a team 7-0 in the Champions League and that 7-0 result was rather flattering to the opposition then you have to be confident and full of hope going into a big game the following matchday.
The obvious threat from Spurs is Kane. He has a robotic knack of scoring goals. He's good in the air, he can shoot from outside the box, he can get in behind and go one-v-one. You can't double team him either because you don't want to be leaving space to Alli or Eriksen. I do think there is a mental weakness in this Spurs side though at key moments and considering many think this team could be special and be a threat in Europe they have yet to actually win a thing. Pochettino, the new King and Tottenham's supposed manager for the next decade or more has yet to win a trophy himself either. The brown-nosing that goes on with Spurs is hilarious to me if somewhat understandable given they are a London club with English players regularly playing for them and they have Wembley as their temporary home before they move into their new stadium.
I think our front 3 pick themselves; I can't see Oxlade-Chamberlain going as part of the front three and Phil dropping deeper. I don't know whether Henderson was rested or dropped the other night so it will be interesting to see if he or Emre Can operate as the 6. Milner played really well and he deserves to keep his place and Oxlade-Chamberlain's pace and athleticism might come in handy on a big pitch against a mobile and high-energy Tottenham side. I think we need at least one pacey option off the bench though, so unless Klopp goes gung-ho from the outset I think we'll see Oxlade-Chamberlain introduced against a tired defence like he was against United.
I'm gutted Mane is missing for this but Salah is in electric form and he'll get in behind them I'm sure given that Pochettino likes playing a high line against us and doesn't seem to want to chance his philosophy even when it hasn't worked well against us in the past. We both played away on Tuesday but their game was surely more taxing on the legs and I think we have a slight advantage in that regard. I fancy us to get the job done, win this and we're only a point behind this lot and our season can really get going. Let's not forget, this will be our ninth game and we've already faced Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City, Leicester away which is never easy and we've also faced a high-flying Watford. Now we face Tottenham at Wembley. That is a tough start and enough hasn't been made of it. Yes, you don't want to make excuses and you play everyone twice but given our off-field distractions and injuries and suspensions to key players we're not in a bad position at all.
I fancy a 3-1 win to the redmen.
