It all started with a press conference late last year when Liverpool were hoisted by Luis Suárez and in a power position. Brendan Rodgers decided to have a go at Tottenham Hotspur.
“Look at Tottenham,” he said. “If you spend more than £100 million, you expect to be challenging for the league.”
The irony is palpable.
Liverpool and Tottenham share some strikingly somber similarities nowadays. Get into the Champions League just once in a few years? Yep. Sell star player to a Spanish giant for huge money? Check. Largely spread the money over a multitude of players, most young? Yeah. Most of those players turning out to be borderline useless? Grudgingly, yes.
Personally, I held distain for Tottenham last year. My reasoning was halved into their innate ability to be utter s**t for 89 minutes then rescue a goal on a set piece in the 90th minute for three points. Meanwhile, Liverpool would earn those same three points by beating someone 5-1.
The other half was Jan Vertonghen irresponsibly saying Liverpool would be nothing without Suárez. The Reds had beaten Spurs 5-0 and 4-0, no single person could be responsible for that. Maybe I was so bitter because I was afraid it was true. The irony, as it goes, is palpable.
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But hey, let’s not forget that Liverpool did the double over Tottenham again this year. Some solace there.
Despite Liverpool coming closer to the crown last season (R.I.P. 2013-14, Always In Our Hearts) than Tottenham ever did with Gareth Bale, and you’ve got to assume that at some point that’s the ultimate goal, Liverpool are much closer to Tottenham than they are Chelsea.
Rodgers prefers to play high tempo, high press football. Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino also prefers to play high tempo, high press football. As for the Champions, José Mourinho does things differently.
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Rodgers’ biggest advantage over Pochettino, though, is his adaptability and willingness to change it up. Pochettino would still play a 4-2-3-1 even if the rules changed and he was allowed 12 players on the pitch. He would arrive at a child’s birthday party with 10 friends in a 4-2-3-1 or assemble pallbearers in that sequence at his funeral.
Granted, Mourinho generally plays the same formation, but regularly tints the tactics and how expansive his side is depending on the opposition. Chelsea smashed sides in the beginning of the year and tightened up late on, especially after losing to Spurs 5-3 on New Year’s Day.
If Roberto Soldado looked in the mirror in an alternate universe, he’d find Mario Balotelli slyly staring back at him with that confident grin. Dejan Lovren is the centre-back version of Erik Lamela, devoid of one incredibly audacious rabona goal. Seriously take a second and imagine Lovren attempting that. (Thinking). Paddy Power just might have to make a video on that one.
Mistakes in the transfer market happen. It’s common. Players don’t perform as expected due to injuries, unable to settle with the team and different part of the world or just being found out at an elevated level. But what’s separated Liverpool and Tottenham with the big boys in recent years is the rate of mistakes.
Chelsea miserably lost on the Fernando Torres deal, but haven’t with Eden Hazard, Nemanja Matic, Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas, to name a few. Liverpool got it right with Philippe Coutinho and Daniel Sturridge, but not so much with Andy Carroll, anybody bought by Roy Hodgson, Fabio Borini, Iago Aspas and it’s not looking good for some of those brought in with the Suárez money. Tottenham have a comparably grim catalog of shite headlined by Soldado, Lamela, Paulinho and Vlad Chiricheș.
There simply aren’t any teams in England like Chelsea at the moment, and this year no one was ever really close. So obviously Liverpool are miles off Chelsea. But Manchester City will reload, Arsenal are slowly thinking about aiming higher than fourth and if Manchester United weren’t hurt by Ramadal Falcao, Angel Di Maria and Luke Shaw, then they’re made of Teflon.
That leaves Liverpool and Tottenham: they’re just not in the same class.
Liverpool capitulated on March 22 against United and never recovered. The craziest part of this horrific season is the fact that had they won on that one day, they’d have been favorites to carry that momentum into fourth-place. That’s the silver lining. They professionally went to Southampton and beat the Saints in a borderline must-win match on the fringes of top four, then they beat City at Anfield one week later.
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People love to say Rodgers bottles it in big games and refers to Chelsea last year, United and everything after it this year. But, had Liverpool lost to Southampton or City, it wouldn’t have been looking good when United came to Anfield. Last year, had Liverpool not been unbeaten from January until April, that Chelsea game wouldn’t have been a big one.
Liverpool feel so much more like Spurs than top four, but, the margins might not be thick as they appear. It really came down to Sturridge being hurt all year and Balotelli generally not being useful. If either one of them scored 15 goals, I think Liverpool nab fourth. Would it have been deserved? No. But does United deserve it this year either? No.
This summer will be filled with hope, wayward links, Rodgers saying “we were never really interested in him anyway” another handful of times and disappointment. Hopefully this summer’s inevitable disappointment is minimal and Liverpool get a few faces in to improve the first team rather than just adding depth. If that happens, then there’s new false hope as a catalyst to be let down this time next year.
Hopefully for Liverpool fans, 2015-16 looks much more 2013-14 than 2014-15, much more Chelsea than Tottenham, much more Kendall Jenner than Bruce Jenner.
