Postecoglou has given Spurs their identity – Slot

Arne Slot believes Ange Postecoglou has given Tottenham their experience as the Reds prepare to travel to North London in the Premier League on Sunday.

Spurs are currently in 10th place after a fantastic season which has seen them take impressive wins over Manchester City, Aston Villa and Manchester United and have lost seven of their 16 league games so far.

Their differences have led some to question Postecoglou’s attacking style, but Slot, whose Liverpool side are top of the Premier League, believes the Australian has set them on the right path.

Ahead of Sunday’s clash, the Reds boss said: “I have to give them credit, when I look at Tottenham, I’m from the Netherlands but I watched a lot of the day’s games.

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

“It’s always great to see them, every now and then the results go against them, but I think they’re one of the teams beating City.”

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

– Liverpool FC (@LFC) December 19, 2024

Tottenham Carabao Cup draw

Tottenham and Liverpool will meet over two legs in the new year after meeting in the semi finals of the Carabao Cup.

On the match, Slot added: “An interesting game, but any draw would have been interesting because, I don’t know if in England it is always the way it is, but the top four teams are still in the competition so it was not easy.”

Slot reiterated his admiration for Postecoglou and insisted he hopes the 59-year-old Spurs will win their long-awaited trophy – but says he hopes it won’t be the Carabao Cup.

He said: “I believe, I hope, they will win the cup.” Not the League Cup but I’m a big fan of his Europa League team.

“People talk about trophies, trophies, trophies and this is very important. For me his style of football is very important and if he can combine it and win something that will be great for football as a whole because then people can stop talking about ‘is he attacking too much?’

“How on earth can you play football so hard?”

‘Judge the table after 19 games’

Despite having played fewer games than their rivals, Liverpool’s lead at the Premier League title has dropped to just two points after they were held 2-2 by Fulham last week.

And Slot says previous speculation that the Merseysiders were due to run away with the title was premature, saying they will have to be judged when the season reaches its peak.

“As I said for the last three or four months, judge the table after 19 games because everyone has played with the same players.

“Maybe we were a bit lucky, for example Arsenal had a lot of red cards at the beginning of the season and that’s why they lost points.

“Now we have received a red card and we have lost points. We have Tottenham where Arsenal had earlier in the season, Chelsea have played there before.

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

Liverpool team news

Slot says Ibrahima Konate and Connor Bradley have not been at the Reds, saying: “These are the two who are still in the Reds, so they are not training with us at the moment. They are on the way back but have not made the team yet.

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

“The main thing is if they come back they are ready to come back and we should not focus on one, two or three games. It is very important in the long run to be fit later. “

Slot seems to be healthy apart from the two, Andy Robertson will return from injury.