Postecoglou has given Spurs their identity back – Slot

Arne Slot believes Ange Postecoglou has given Tottenham its identity back as the Reds prepare to visit north London in the Premier League on Sunday.

Spurs currently sit in 10th place after an up-and-down season in which they achieved impressive wins over the likes of Manchester City, Aston Villa and Manchester United, but also lost seven of their 16 league games so far.

His inconsistency has led some to question Postecoglou’s attacking approach, but Slot, whose Liverpool are currently top of the Premier League, believes the Australian is pointing them in the right direction.

Ahead of Sunday’s clash, the Reds boss said: “I really have to give them credit, if I look at Tottenham, I come from Holland but I watched a lot of Match of the Day.

“You think of Paul Gascoigne, Glenn Hoddle, Gareth Bale. They have always been a certain football brand and a certain identity for me, and Ange Postecoglou gives them that identity back completely.

“It’s always a pleasure to watch them, from time to time the results go against them, but I think they are one of the teams that can beat City.”

We faced the Spurs in the semi-finals of the @Carabao_Cup 👊 pic.twitter.com/VWgI4rrlRO

—Liverpool FC (@LFC) December 19, 2024

Tottenham Carabao Cup draw

Tottenham and Liverpool will face off over two legs in the new year after being drawn together in the Carabao Cup semi-finals.

Regarding the draw, Slot added: “Interesting match, but every draw would have been interesting because, I don’t know if it’s always the situation in England, but four of the best teams are still in the draw, so it wasn’t easy. “

Slot reiterated his admiration for Postecoglou by insisting he hopes the 59-year-old brings Spurs a long-awaited trophy, but says he hopes it is not the Carabao Cup.

He said: “I hope, I hope, I hope he wins a trophy. Not the League Cup, but I’m a complete fan of their team for the Europa League.

“People talk about trophies, trophies, trophies and that is very important. For me, his style of football is more important and if he can combine that with winning something, it would be very good for football in general, because then people can stop talking about “is it too offensive?”

“How on earth can you play too much attacking football?”

‘Judge the table after 19 games’

Although they have played one game less than their title rivals, Liverpool’s lead at the top of the Premier League has been reduced to just two points after a 2-2 draw at Fulham last weekend.

And Slot says previous suggestions that the Merseysiders would take the title were premature, claiming they should only be judged when the season has reached the halfway point.

“As I have said for the last three or four months, judge the table after 19 games because then everyone played against the same opponents.

“We were probably a bit lucky, for example Arsenal received a lot of red cards at the start of the season and lost points because of that.

“Now we received a red card and lost points. Now we have Tottenham out that Arsenal had at the beginning of the season, Chelsea was already playing there.

“Don’t look at where you were in the season, but where you are at the end of the season.”

Liverpool team news

Slot says Ibrahima Konate and Connor Bradley are still out of the Reds, saying: “These two are still in the red, so they are not training with us at the moment. They are back but they haven’t trained with the team yet.

“It’s quite difficult (to predict when they will return). Let’s wait and see, but we have very good rehab staff here and they have already done a good job with Alisson and a few others.

“The main thing is that if they return, they are prepared to return and we should not focus on one, two or three games. In the long term it is more important that they are in shape afterwards.”

It looks like Slot will be healthy beyond those two, with Andy Robertson returning from injury.