‘Richarlison is not very clever’ – Ex-Spurs Scout: Three things I learned from Tottenham win over Liverpool
Tottenham News is delighted to welcome aboard our brilliant new columnist Bryan King, the former goalkeeper who spent six years as a senior scout at Spurs and 28 years in total in first-team scouting roles. Bryan also spent eight years on Everton’s recruitment team and 11 years scouting at Aston Villa across two different spells.
Tottenham beat a nine-man Liverpool 2-1 at home on Saturday 30 September thanks to a 96th-minute own goal via Joel Matip.
It was Spurs’ first victory over the Reds since the 2017/18 season and sees them continue their unbeaten start to the season and move second in the Premier League.
Ex-Spurs scout Bryan King was watching on for Tottenham News and detailed three things he learned from the result.
Spurs must show more variation going forward
Tottenham kept going through the middle. We have seen time and time again that if you can get balls in behind the full-backs and get runners through the middle you have got half a chance. Spurs didn’t show enough variation in attack, especially after Son went off. They were going through the middle nearly all the time and Liverpool’s two central defenders defended very well.
I am not so sure about Richarlison, he is not very clever with the runs he makes and he certainly isn’t a Harry Kane, but then again, who is?
The players believe in Postecoglou
I was most impressed by the way Tottenham competed. The first 25 minutes were unbelievable, people getting closed down and the way that Tottenham worked was fantastic. There is a whole different atmosphere at Spurs at the moment. Ange Postecoglou looks like he could be walking down the street to work on the high road, he isn’t one of these managers who charges up and down the touchline to try and make himself noticeable, he just gets on with it and the players obviously believe in him because they work their socks off.
Once again you saw how important James Maddison is. The first goal was one touch football, a great pass, a great ball across the box and a great finish. I thought everybody did well for Tottenham.
VAR continues to make mistakes
I just think these incidents with VAR are going to happen every week until they actually sort out who is in that room. If you can see it within ten seconds sitting at home, how on earth can they not see it within a minute or two? They have been doing these things in Rugby and American Football for years and it works well, but this is farcical. That offside goal could cost a manager their job. Why didn’t they introduce the lines? It is a comedy of errors.
You have six referees in the VAR room working with four referees on the pitch, that is ten referees and they still can’t get it right. They need to bring in a second opinion from people who have actually played the game, who have been in these situations and seen these situations. They’re making the same mistakes as the ones on the pitch. There are ten Premier League referees watching every game and there is still controversy in every game.
Something has got to be done.
In other Tottenham news, John Wenham of Lilywhite Rose believes one Spurs academy star is ready to be promoted to the first team.