Tribalfootball.com's tactics expert Connor Holden digs into Tottenham's chaotic victory over Liverpool on Saturday and assesses how they managed to overcome a stubborn Reds team in the final minutes.

In a game riddled with controversy, Tottenham emerged victorious after a 96th minute own goal from Joel Matip.

But this game had it all, two red cards, an own goal, a disallowed "offside" goal which was dismissed by VAR and a few interesting tactical decisions from the managers.

In this write up, I am going to explain why I think it took Spurs so long to break a 10 men, and then 9 men Liverpool down, and what Liverpool did to stop Tottenham gaining momentum and rhythm.

TEAM LINE-UPS

The two teams looked very similar to how they have been all season, Tottenham starting in a 4-2-3-1 / 4-3-3 which looks more like a 2-3-5 in possession with their inverted fullbacks. Whilst Liverpool lined up in their 4-3-3, which in possession looks like a 3-2-5 with one of their fullbacks inverting into midfield, and the other fullback becoming a third central defender.

LIVERPOOL RED CARDS

To understand why it took Tottenham so long to break Liverpool down and hurt them in forward areas, we have to assess the way Liverpool started this game inside the first 26 minutes before their first red card in the way of Curtis Jones.

Leading up to the red card, the first 25 minutes looked like Liverpool were going to go head to head with Spurs and play them in a high intensity, duel driven game. However when Jones was sent off in the 26th minute, this scuppered the preparations, and meant Liverpool had to play more defensively and try to create their chances on the break.

This led to Liverpool packing central areas, and leaving one of their forwards (mainly Mohamed Salah) in forward areas ready for the counter attacking chances as an outlet. The rest of Liverpool's team made two banks of four, with the wide players tucking in more narrow and making it hard for Spurs to play in central areas.

This is something Tottenham focus on, with their double inverted fullbacks, and double 8's playing very close together with the number 6 (Yves Bissouma). Therefore Liverpool packing the central areas made it hard for Tottenham to play the way they wanted to play, and forced them to try to make tactical changes, or at least that's what you would have expected…

STUBBORN SPURS?

As previously mentioned, Liverpool after their red card looked to pack central areas, bringing their wide men inside, and basically having them man park the inverted fullback areas of the pitch. Liverpool's main aim was to force Tottenham out wide, and deal with balls into the box rather than letting them play their quick, interchanging football that leads to gaps opening up all over in attacking zones.

This may be where we first saw a sign that Ange Postecoglou is very set on his system, and doesn't want to make in-game alterations if need be. As even against 10 and then 9 man Liverpool, he still looked to play quick interchanging, close proximity football in central areas, where Liverpool were overloading defensively.

When the opposition loses 1 man, let alone 2 men, the ideal change to make is to attempt to make the pitch as big as possible, stretch the play and create space for your players with the man advantage.

However Postecoglou was set on his patterns of play, and instead made the pitch smaller playing in tighter areas with his team close together, very narrow. This made it easy for Liverpool as they held strong in central areas, and were willing to let the ball go wide if Spurs wanted, but Tottenham didn't fancy that route.

You could say "luckily" for Spurs, they found the late winner through a Matip own goal, which actually did come from a Pedro Porro cross, who found himself in an advanced wide area. I believe if they had stretched the pitch, allowed their fullbacks to play wider with the man advantage, and double up down the flanks instead, they could have made many more chances, and maybe wouldn't have left it so late for grabbing a winner.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, Liverpool were unfortunate with some decisions in this game, and they defended very well throughout under the circumstances of being undermanned. However Spurs were persistent, and got the reward late in the game for this.

One thing you cannot disregard since Postecoglou has arrived is the mentality shift, and the persistence until the last whistle, something that wasn't as familiar at Tottenham under previous coaches.