Tottenham vs Liverpool: Japhet Tanganga gamble pays off but Jose Mourinho’s tactics invite scrutiny

Don’t say we didn’t warn you. Miguel Delaney’s match preview had mentioned that José Mourinho was seriously considering selecting Japhet Tanganga for the visit of Liverpool this evening, the Tottenham Hotspur manager having hunkered down in Enfield this week franticly plotting a way to frustrate the league leaders. The 20-year-old’s only previous first-team experience was September’s Carabao Cup defeat at Colchester. He acquitted himself well that night, but – with respect – Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mané are a very different proposition to Courtney Senior, Frank Nouble and Luke Gambin.

Mourinho does have previous for this sort of thing, of course. Six years ago, on one of the most infamous afternoons in the history of the Premier League, Mourinho named another unknown and untested 20-year-old in his starting XI to face a Liverpool team fighting for the Premier League title. Only two weeks beforehand, Chelsea’s Tomáš Kalas had joked he was merely “a player for training sessions”. Yet there he was at Anfield, thrown into the furnace, helping to keep a clean sheet in a stunning 2-0 victory that ultimately precipitated Liverpool’s downfall.

But even Kalas – who so effectively shackled Luis Suárez and Philippe Coutinho that day – did not make as immediate an impact as Tanganga. In north London, as a far greyer Mourinho watched on, Liverpool pounced upon a poor Christian Eriksen corner to scream down the field on the counter-attack. The ball found itself to the quick feet of Firmino, who danced his way into a pocket of space in the penalty box before expertly curling a shot towards the bottom left corner of the goal. Paulo Gazzaniga was beaten … only for Tanganga to drop off the advancing Mané at precisely the right moment, so that he could block the goalbound shot with an inch-perfect sliding tackle.

It was his second touch of the match. The first was a powerful header to clear the ball in the first ten seconds. Has there even been a more impactful start to a Premier League career?

It was a magical, fairy-tale start for a 20-year-old in his first significant appearance. But the spell could not last forever. Towards the end of the first-half, Jordan Henderson nodded the ball to Salah in Tottenham’s box. He duly rolled it to Firmino, who dropped a shoulder, stole a touch around Tanganga, and buried a gleefully destructive finish beyond Gazzaniga.

It wasn’t Tanganga’s fault. Some attacking touches simply cannot be defended against. Some goals cannot be stopped. That’s fine. That’s football. And yet it was a cruel blow for Tanganga to be the victim of Firmino’s brilliance, particularly given the nature of his performance. He was Tottenham’s best player.

His performance was all the more impressive considering the size of the task Mourinho entrusted to him. Perhaps it would have been easier for him to be stationed in between Toby Alderweireld and Davinson Sánchez. Instead, he was deployed on the right of the trio, meaning he had to be perpetually aware of Serge Aurier’s sorties forward. Aurier had an (unusually) good game – and yet was still so often caught jogging aimlessly back into frame while Mané raced away at the other end of the picture. It was then Tanganga's job to step in and snuff out the danger.

There were other moments of rawness – an ill-timed second-half slip almost led to a second goal for Liverpool – but those pale in comparison to all the things he got right. No Tottenham player made more tackles (2). No Tottenham player made more interceptions (2). And only Alderweireld (TEN!) made more than his eight clearances. He even filled in at left back when Mourinho finally ripped down the fortifications and signalled for Érik Lamela and Giovani Lo Celso.

Yet even a beefed up and bolstered Spurs defence was never going to be able to stymie Liverpool’s stifling, suffocating pressure: against waves upon waves of brisk attacking play, Tottenham’s wall of white-shirted defenders were pushed deep, twisted and turned out of position. These are the ways this Liverpool side will kill you.

In the face of such a formidable attack, it is not particularly surprising that a Tottenham team who have conceded 20 goals in just 13 matches under Mourinho was eventually breached. Questions will surely be asked of Mourinho’s game plan. And yet his biggest gamble in his biggest Spurs match so far ultimately paid off. Tanganga produced a performance to be proud of.