Liverpool vs. Tottenham Hotspur: 5 players to watch out for | Premier League 2020-21
This Wednesday evening sees one of the biggest games of the 2020-21 Premier League campaign thus far, as Liverpool play host to Tottenham Hotspur.
Reigning Premier League champions Liverpool haven’t enjoyed as strong a start as they did in their 2019-20 campaign. But they still sit second in the table and have lost just once – that 7-2 hammering at the hands of Aston Villa.
Tottenham, meanwhile, are the current Premier League leaders. They’re unbeaten in 11 games after losing their opening match to Everton.
This game's winners will probably become the early favorites to take the Premier League crown, meaning the stakes are high. So with that in mind, here are five players to keep an eye on when Liverpool face off with Tottenham.
#1 Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)
With only 10 goals conceded thus far, Jose Mourinho has built Tottenham into a very strong defensive side. The likes of Toby Alderweireld, Eric Dier, and Serge Aurier have been able to repel the attacks of Manchester City, Chelsea, and Arsenal – so can they do the same to Liverpool this Wednesday?
The big danger-man for the Reds will likely be Mohamed Salah. The Egyptian international has largely been able to avoid Liverpool’s injury woes thus far into 2020-21, missing just one Premier League game.
And where last season saw him sharing scoring duties with Sadio Mane, this season has seen Salah become Liverpool’s primary goal threat. He’s already scored 10 goals in Premier League action – double the amount of Mane. And so if anyone can get past Tottenham’s defense, it’s him.
Salah also has history in scoring goals against Tottenham, having found the net in three of Liverpool’s past four games against Spurs. If he’s firing on all cylinders on Wednesday, Tottenham might find him hard to stop.
#2 Harry Kane (Tottenham)
Despite some observers questioning whether Jose Mourinho could get the best of him, Harry Kane is enjoying an astonishing campaign thus far, even by his standards. Not only has he appeared in all of Tottenham’s opening 12 Premier League games, but he’s been involved with goals at a ridiculous rate.
Already, Kane has scored nine goals and made 10 assists, essentially being involved in all but five of Tottenham’s 24 league goals. And his seemingly telepathic relationship with Son Heung-min has made him even more dangerous, with the duo combining for 12 goals thus far in the 2020-21 campaign.
But Kane is more than a goal machine for Tottenham. It’s his ability to drop deep and pick up passes – whether they’re to Son or others such as Steven Bergwijn and Giovani Lo Celso – that makes Tottenham the Premier League’s most dangerous counter-attacking unit.
And, of course, the England captain is more than willing to do his defensive duties too – as we saw when he cleared a header off the line in Tottenham’s October win over Burnley.
If Liverpool want to win this game, they simply have to find a way to prevent Kane from influencing proceedings. If they can’t, then Tottenham are more than capable of handing them a rare defeat at Anfield.