Tottenham Hotspur lost 4-0 to Liverpool in the second leg of their EFL Cup clash at Anfield. Spurs did not give a good account of themselves in a season-defining game as they crashed out with a whimper.
The North Londoners were played off the park for most of the game with manager Ange Postecoglou coming under fire for failing to inspire a better performance from his team.
Upon the final whistle, criticism began to flow in from pundits, laying into the performance from Tottenham. Unsurprisingly, former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher had a lot to say and went overboard on Sky Sports.
Jamie Redknapp was also guilty of over-berating this Spurs side. Tottenham went into that game without their first-choice goalkeeper and central defensive pairing.
Their main striker is out with an injury and his back-up picked up a calf injury with 44 minutes gone, forcing the manager to start a player with barely any training sessions.
Unfortunately, Carragher and Redknapp failed to add context and kept taking low jabs against Postecoglou or Tottenham. Suggesting Spurs have not won a big game in years is poor punditry when Spurs beat the reigning Premier League champions Manchester City to get this far in the tournament. They also defeated Liverpool in the first leg.
Postecoglou was asked about proving the media wrong and retorted (via Football London), “I don’t know which people I’m meant to be proving wrong.”
“I said last night, it’s irrelevant to me what other people’s opinions are. People are on the TV, the radio and in the newspapers to give opinions, and I respect that. They are allowed to do that, but I don’t have any obligation to listen to any of it.
“To get fuelled by the comments of people I’ve never even met, I don’t know how you live your life, but I certainly don’t live my life that way. That’s with all respect that they are there to give an opinion.
“It’s not like I want to be successful here so I can go to these people and say to them, ‘Oh, look, you were wrong’. I don’t even know them. Why would I care where they think we are at? They are a million miles away from us, but they are allowed to have their opinion.”
Carragher has a sharp football mind, but when Liverpool is involved, all that analysis goes out the window, replaced by blatant tribalism. His criticism of Spurs was not insightful or tactical. It was just an excuse to grandstand. Redknapp followed suit, adding little beyond the usual tired cliches about the Tottenham mentality.
The reality is simple. Tottenham were outclassed on the night, but the circumstances were far from straightforward. Missing key players in critical positions, playing at Anfield against a high-flying Liverpool side, and managing injuries on the fly. These are all crucial details conveniently ignored in the post-match rhetoric.
Spurs were poor, but the over-the-top reaction from Carragher and Redknapp lacked nuance, balance, and professionalism.
If Carragher and Redknapp want to criticise, they should at least do their jobs properly and analyse the game fairly instead of using it as a platform to hammer home tired talking points.