Tottenham’s biggest weakness was revealed by Liverpool

Tottenham learned a lot of valuable lessons against Liverpool. Chiefly, Mauricio Pochettino learned where his club most improve in January.

The 4-3-3 formation has a lot of potential for Tottenham, but it’s not going to work if they can’t control the midfield. The trio of Harry Winks, Eric Dier and Mousa Dembele utterly failed to do so in Spurs’ 2-1 loss to Liverpool.

Much will be made of Michel Vorm’s failure to stop the opening goal, but Spurs lost this match in the middle of the pitch. Liverpool’s starting group of Naby Keita, James Milner and Gigi Wijnaldum were clearly a cut above their Tottenham counterparts. Pochettino’s ability to strengthen his options in the midfield may determine how successful Spurs can be this season.

Winks is the youngest of Pochettino’s options, but he clearly has the most upside. He also was the best of the group that started against Liverpool by a very narrow margin. The Englishman certainly wasn’t good against the Reds, but he gets a bit of a pass due to his youth and inexperience.

Dier and Dembele both deserve a significant amount of criticism. Both have played a ton of Premier League and international football in their careers, but neither showed up at Wembley against Liverpool. Their poor play is a huge issue for Pochettino moving forward.

Let’s start with Dembele. Spurs have to face the reality that he cannot be counted on as a starter moving forward. He was just too slow to handle Liverpool. The Belgian did his best to use his body to shield defenders away from the ball, but he was overmatched at every turn. It’s hard to remember a single positive contribution he made during his hour on the pitch.

Dier was a nightmare as well. It’s worth questioning whether or not he should consider a permanent move back to centre back. He’s capable of shielding the back four, but anytime he’s asked to play as a two-way midfielder he looks entirely overmatched. Contrast him with a player like Milner and it’s really easy to see his deficiencies. The English international just isn’t athletic enough to run forward and contribute to his club’s attack. Unless Spurs are going to commit to a formation that allows him to sit deep and focus on defence, he’s going to struggle to play good football for Pochettino.

The natural question then is what Spurs should do. The answer is pretty simple. The club need to make significant investments in their midfield options. It needs to start in January, and it likely needs to continue into the summer. This isn’t a personnel group that’s going to be fixed quickly or cheaply.

Just look at what Liverpool did with their acquisition of Naby Keita. A player like that could transform Tottenham’s midfield. It’s just the sort of purchase Tottenham need to make if they really want to compete with elite teams across Europe.

Developing the talent you have is a wonderful ideal, but it’s not always the answer to your problems. Tottenham need to spend big on a midfield overhaul to put themselves in a position to win the Premier League.