Tottenham (Tottenham Hotspur Stadium) - Match Preview & Discussion Thread (Sep 30)

Plus a great article – "Liverpool Reloaded" – by Andrew Tangas

Before the usual match preview, an excellent read from a subscriber.

Liverpool Reloaded

By Andrew Tangas

What’s he doing?

He’s beginning to believe…

I originally thought of this quote from The Matrix in relation to my own perspective on this season’s potential. But it felt like there was a bit of Matrix in so many areas of our game on Sunday… the all-in-black Ali dropping to his right in a Neo-esque, bullet-time plunge; Darwin’s exquisitely precise kung-fu goal; Macca’s first assist and growing self-belief that he might be The One (The Six?); Joël Matip’s epic physical battle with Agent Antonio (okay I’m starting to stretch here 😅).

In all seriousness though, I did find parts of myself starting to wonder, “are we actually that far off?” I think there are a few reasons for this.

Firstly, individual personnel in defence have progressed rapidly in the last month.

Virgil van Dijk looks like he’s entered a time machine set for 2019, back with all his old laconic effectiveness, and he seems to be actually enjoying his football again. He looks a totally different player to the last few years, especially in the last two matches against LASK and West Ham. Where at the start of the season (and through the first few matches) I saw a fading superstar holding onto dreams of past abilities, the last few weeks I’ve seen a player recapturing some of those abilities, and more comfortable with his current reality.

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