Liverpool 4-0 Spurs: 4 Signs Tim Sherwood Is Getting It Wrong at Tottenham

Spurs' latest loss, a 4-0 away drubbing at the hands of Brendan Rodgers' effervescent Liverpool, once again served to highlight an ineptitude in manager Tim Sherwood perceived by many sections of the North London club's support.

Growing tired-looking, the 45-year-old first-timer continues to struggle in charge of the Lilywhites; following a promising run at the beginning of his tenure, Spurs have now lost four in their last six league games as their challenge for a Champions League place crumbles.

These losses include those away to Liverpool, Manchester City and the latest North London derby at home to Arsenal earlier in March.

Losing these big games will likely prove the final nail in the coffin for Spurs' latest top-four aspirations, and as a result many will turn, rankled, towards Sherwood.

Here are four reasons why the ex-Spurs midfielder is getting it wrong in charge of the club.

The High Defensive Line

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Spurs defenders Younes Kaboul and Michael Dawson talk to referee Phil Dowd at Anfield.

A trademark of Sherwood’s Spurs side following his taking charge of the club is the utilising of a high defensive line.

This is a system that is seemingly tailored to suit Hugo Lloris’ world-class capabilities as a sweeper-'keeper. Adept at judging when to rushing out from goal to collect or intercept the ball, Lloris is unfortunate in not having a confident or physically capable back four in front of him to suit his abilities.

Against Liverpool, Sherwood was unlucky to have to make a change to his defensive line early in the first half following an injury to Belgian centre-back Jan Vertonghen in the 24th minute. England international Michael Dawson was brought on in his stead, and his introduction served as a tremor throughout Spurs’ back four.

Kaboul, previously shaky in possession following his second-minute own goal, struggled alongside Dawson; both were culpable for Luis Suarez’s goal—particularly following Dawson’s poor first touch.

Elsewhere, full-backs Kyle Naughton and Danny Rose looked uncomfortable, both in possession and in tracking forward and back as Liverpool’s fluid attacking force—notably aided by a man-of-the-match performance by Raheem Sterling—ran riot.

Rose, tasked with suppressing Sterling and the attack-happy Glen Johnson in the opening stages, was found immediately wanting as Liverpool’s right-back was allowed to make an overlapping run behind the Spurs defence, providing the cross which resulted in Kaboul’s own goal.

Spurs have by far the worst defensive record of the current top six clubs in the Premier League, having shipped 44 goals so far this season, and playing a high defensive line may be something that Sherwood needs to look at as he attempts to steady the ship in the North London club’s final six games of the season.

A Disjointed Midfield

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Spurs' midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson chases Liverpool's Raheem Sterling in the 4-0 loss at Anfield.

A criticism of Spurs throughout this season, during both Villas Boas’ tenure and now in Sherwood’s care, is that the North London club don’t know their best team.

This—whilst naturally now a lazy criticism—was hugely apparent with Sherwood’s midfield for the Liverpool loss.

Since his coming into power, Sherwood has more often than not favoured a formation featuring two holding midfield players and three more attacking options; for the game at Anfield, he opted for Nabil Bentaleb and Gylfi Sigurdsson in the deeper roles, with Nacer Chadli, Christian Eriksen and Aaron Lennon supporting Soldado as the lone striker.

Chadli and Eriksen were rightly deployed, as their efforts of late have been among the most encouraging aspects of Spurs’ recent performances.

Elsewhere, Bentaleb remains something of a pet project for Sherwood, and the 19-year-old midfielder has been hugely impressive this season. As per Squawka, the Algerian has the third-best passing accuracy of any of Spurs’ midfielders with 87 percent.

Sherwood has been unlucky of late with injuries hampering central-midfield destroyer Sandro’s season, and it could be argued that when fit, the Brazilian would have the role alongside Bentaleb nailed down. However, in his absence, Sherwood’s inclusion of Sigurdsson to shield the back four remains suspect.

A ready-made option for the deep-lying midfield role sat on Sherwood's bench throughout proceedings: Moussa Dembele. The Belgian looked on idly until the hour mark, perhaps knowing full well his abilities in breaking up play and moving with the ball from deep could be exactly what Sherwood needs.

Soldado as a Centre-Forward

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Roberto Soldado reflects on another miserable result for Spurs against Benfica.

Whether or not Spurs’ myriad summer signings were at the whim of Daniel Levy, Andre Villas Boas or Franco Baldini, the task at hand for Sherwood is to get the best out of his current charges for the rest of the season; from then on the former Blackburn midfielder may get his chance to put his stamp on the side financially.

Signing Erik Lamela, Eriksen, Vlad Chiriches, Etienne Capoue, Chadli, Paulinho and Roberto Soldado with the fee stimulated by Gareth Bale’s then-projected move to Real Madrid in the summer was always likely to make waves within the Spurs' squad: Signing so many so quickly is more often than not a recipe for disaster.

This season, Spurs have struggled to make their squad gel; however, each signing has shown they can contribute to the team in the long term.

One of the players to have struggled most publicly is Spanish international striker Roberto Soldado, and this is arguably mainly due to his being wrongly utilised.

Under unfortunate circumstances, due to injuries to a resurgent Emmanuel Adebayor of late, Soldado has often been deployed as a lone striker this season.

However, it has become apparent throughout the season, and would have been to followers of La Liga even before that, that Soldado is not a typical bulky centre-forward; more a blend of Dimitar Berbatov and Darren Bent, the Spaniard thrives on putting chances away as opposed to holding up play and creating.

To make matters worse, whilst Chadli and Eriksen have shone of late—in fact, they were Spurs’ best performers against Liverpool—they are not being deployed close enough to Soldado to benefit from any chances that the 28-year-old is able to create.

With proven European, international and domestic pedigree, Soldado’s talent has surely not dissolved overnight. However, as Squawka attributes, the striker has managed just six goals in 26 league appearances for Spurs this season, a return which does little to justify his reported £26 million fee as per BBC Sport.

It can be a struggle to adapt to a different league, particularly one as physical as the Premier League, but one of the main reasons for Soldado’s poor performances has been Sherwood’s tactical deficiency.

Bizarre Behaviour

Kirsty Wigglesworth

Spurs manager Tim Sherwood has come under criticism of late for his aggressive approach to management.

In his pre-match press conference, Sherwood spoke about his Liverpool game plan, as per Sky Sports:

"

They can be caught on the counter-attack and we will be very respectful of the threats they have coming forwards, but we need to try and impose ourselves on them at some stage of the game… We'll have try to nullify their potent strike force and see what we can do on the counter.

"

This may have been a potential mind game by Sherwood to heap the pressure on Liverpool’s Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge prior to the tie. However, the impression that Sherwood gave was one of the abject, hours before the first whistle had even been blown.

In recent games, Sherwood has flitted from stand to touchline with uneasy regularity, and this image reflects his situation at Spurs. Whilst having signed a two-season contract, as per the Guardian, after taking over from the ousted Andre Villas Boas in 2013, there has remained an overwhelming feeling of uncertainty surrounding Sherwood’s spell in charge of the club.

This was compounded last week by Ruud Gullit’s claim that Dutch manager Louis Van Gaal was set to take over at the North London club in the summer, as reported by BBC Sport.

Following the game, a dejected and sullen Sherwood told BBC's Match of the Day 2 that "it might be the case that these teams are better than us;" after the signing of so many so-called talents, from the variable spark of Christian Eriksen to the missing-in-action Erik Lamela, comments such as these cannot endear Sherwood to the judgment of Daniel Levy.