By Jordan Carreno

Matchday 32 sees the Reds host Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield. Kick off is scheduled for Sunday at 11:30 AM EST.

Liverpool v Tottenham — 03/31/2019 1630 GMT

It is an action packed weekend for us at LFC Tampa Bay. First, on Saturday we are having our Rowdies event at Al Lang where we are tailgating and then going to the Rowdies match. If you bought tickets from us, you can come pick them up at the tailgate before the match. If you have your own tickets and are going, feel free to stop by and join in as we belt out a few chants and down enough hot dogs to win a 4th of July contest.

The main course for the weekend is the Top 4 clash against Tottenham the following morning, and, as always, all threeLFC Tampa Bay locations will be open, serving, and showing the match. So, with all that being covered, let’s get into the talking points.

The Final Chapter

This is it. Having made it through this last international break, there will be no more pauses in this season until it reaches its conclusion. All the early season dramatics, midseason dominance, and slight stumbles have led us to a place where Liverpool Football Club are part of all the conversations we’ve wanted them to be a part of. As much as the hard work done to get to this point was a necessary chore in order to ensure the team could be in this position to challenge in Europe and in the league, it is, for the time being, irrelevant.

All that exists and all that matters is the next 2 months of football. More specifically, all that exists and all that matters in those 2 months of football is these next 7 games in the league. There will be time later to harp on just how far the club has come this season, but first Jurgen and the lads must finish writing their story before we can re-read it.

This Liverpool squad has done the brutally hard work of keeping up with Manchester City to this point in the season. Their reward for doing that hard work is the opportunity to do the even harder work of beating them over the line. However daunting the task ahead, having the opportunity to take it on is really all you want.

This is teeing off in the last group at the Masters on a Sunday. This is stepping into lane 6 for the 100m final at the Olympics. This is the opportunity for this Liverpool team to write their names down in history and add another few pages to the canon of Liverpool footballing greatness.

This Liverpool squad have the chance to forever stitch themselves into Liverpool’s history

Challenging on two fronts and genuinely pushing what could be the best side England has ever seen is all the team would have wanted at this point in the season. It’s all we would have wanted as supporters. The anxiety and drama it will undoubtedly create is what football memories and legend are made of. These last seven games in the league, starting with Tottenham, are the pages for this Liverpool team to put the final touches on what has already been a spectacular season.

Pressure Aplenty

Pressure is an almost unavoidable term in modern football, particularly at this point of the season. Coming down to the business end of the Premier League, there is pressure aplenty for teams up and down the table. There’s the pressure to win things, the pressure to make top 4, the pressure to avoid relegation, almost every single team in the league is under some sort of pressure to perform.

For Liverpool, the pressure is there to win things. This pressure is only compounded by the added fact that it has almost been 30 years since Liverpool last won the title. Mix in that title challenges have been few and far between in recent times for the club and it can lead to the feelings of anxiety becoming a bit overwhelming. However, this type of pressure is much preferred to the type of pressure our opponents on Sunday are facing.

Tottenham come into the match on the back of some terrible league form. It was only a few weeks ago when there was talk of a possible three horse race involving Tottenham. At the time they were 4 points back of Liverpool and only 2 points behind City. Since then Spurs have only picked up one point, losing 3 out of 4 games. Now Tottenham find themselves in a scrap for Top 4 with only 4 points separating them from 6th placed Chelsea. Add in the “Spurs Collapse” trope of recent years, and there exists a very real chance for the end of the season to be catastrophic for Tottenham.

Pressure is unavoidable in modern football. As the saying goes, “pressure can burst a pipe or make a diamond.” Both teams will come into Sunday’s match with a different brand of pressure on their plate. For Tottenham it is a case of not lending credence to the “it’s Spurs” meme. For Liverpool it is the opportunity to win a title and end Liverpool’s Premier League drought.

Mo’s Moment?

A chance for Mo to springboard into the last 7 games and haunt Spurs again

Whilst Salah has proven he is no one season wonder, he has yet to hit the same dazzling heights he did last season in the goalscoring department. Though he is still among the top scorers in the league, he has been just off his top stuff for most of this season and we are all waiting for him to click into top gear. With just 7 games left, now could be the time for Mo to find that top form and leave a lasting impression on what could be a historic season for Liverpool Football Club.

All this season is missing is another scorching run of form in front of goal for Salah. At various points in the season, different members of this squad have stepped up to push the team over the line. In recent times it has been Mane scoring the goals and leading the line. Earlier in the season it was the backline keeping clean sheets. This last 7 games could be the chance for Mo Salah to grab the reins and lead the charge to glory.

Last season in this corresponding fixture, Mo was robbed of a glorious winner when Erik Lamela decided to hit the ground like he lost all the feeling in his legs. A match up against Spurs at Anfield could add an extra level of motivation to help Salah springboard into the end of the season. Getting that elusive 50th goal for Liverpool should also help to calm any nerves Mo might have had in recent weeks. Regardless, a flurry of goals in this last 7 games from Salah is exactly what this Liverpool squad and Mo himself need.

Prediction

It is the domestic table once again. David and I both managed to get 1 point last time for predicting a Liverpool victory against Fulham. This leaves me on 41 points to David’s 38.

It will be interesting to see what Spurs will do. Whilst it wouldn’t be surprising for Tottenham to come out and play football against us, Pochettino has shown tactical flexibility in recent matches. A draw away at Anfield would be a good result for Tottenham in the circumstances, so they might sit back and defend. If City were willing to do it, then it would be no big disgrace if they did, and it might be their best hope at getting a result.

For us, I think we have seen a firm return to the 4–3–3. Since Fabinho’s familiarization with Liverpool’s system, we haven’t really gone back to the 4–2–3–1, and i think the 4–3–3 is the formation we will see for a majority of our remaining matches. So with that in mind, I expect we see an unchanged side from the one that started against Fulham with the exception that Henderson comes in for Lallana.

For me the match goes one of two ways. It is either end to end stuff with both teams scoring goals and a narrow Liverpool victory, or they try to contain us and we end up rolling them over early on, overwhelming them and crushing their spirits. No surprises on which way I’m siding. We will smash them. 4–1.

David’s Prediction: I feel like Poch will send his team out to get a result, which for them in current form is a draw to see them through to easier fixtures ahead. The problem is he won’t be on the sideline to calm them down when Mane opens things just after halftime. The Anfield wifi goes haywire and he conveniently can’t get a signal to communicate with his assistants to tell them what to say to the players. Spurs lose their heads and go for broke, opening up a spate of chances for the Reds on the counter, one of which Mo buries followed by Bobby. Kane is given a penalty near the death, because of course he is. Alisson saves it and the celebrations begin. 3–0 to the Reds.