Tottenham downed by Liverpool’s second-stringers to showcase painful regret

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If Tottenham had their way, Cody Gakpo would have been scoring goals for them by now. Instead, he scored against them and even as they ended one barren streak, another looks set to continue.

It was quintessential Gakpo, in the manner of the goal, the right-footed finish angled across the goalkeeper. More pertinently, it felt typical Tottenham. A hideous start to the season was compounded as a club without domestic silverware for 18 years were eliminated from one of the two competitions they could have designs on winning. They have had few returns on their colossal spending spree but suffered at the hands of the man they tried to buy.

Liverpool progressed because of one they considered selling, in the Dutchman, and another who went public in his gripes that they have not done enough to keep him, in Alexis Mac Allister, with a win that was clinched by Dominik Szoboszlai’s latest wonder goal. His spectacular long-range half-volley rewarded Andoni Iraola for his policy of holding some of his premier players back and making a team showing 10 changes team stronger with his substitutions. The committed display of a youthful side was an endorsement of the Basque. Tottenham’s defeat, with a lack of urgency for too long and a needless decision to bench most of their big-money buys, was an indictment of Roberto De Zerbi.

“We are sorry for the result, disappointed and frustrated,” said the Italian. He feels his side are unlucky and Spurs could point to a frantic finale featuring a brilliant save from Giorgi Mamardashvili to deny Omar Marmoush a first goal for them. They could think, though, that there is a certain inevitability that their defence was breached by a man they hoped would join the Egyptian in their new-look forward line.

Tottenham spent much of last season conceding goals to players they had tried to sign, whether Eberechi Eze, Bryan Mbeumo or Morgan Gibbs-White. And now, of course, to Gakpo. It may add insult to injury that the winger they did sign instead, Mykhailo Mudryk, is already sidelined.

As Gakpo arrowed a shot past the debutant goalkeeper Martin Dubravka, perhaps it showed Virgil van Dijk’s wisdom when he urged Liverpool not to sell his fellow Dutchman. Iraola can be glad they heeded his captain. “Cody gives us not just the goals and the assists,” he said. But they help. Gakpo’s season has already brought two goals and four assists. How Spurs must wish he – or anyone else – had been that productive in their colours.

Liverpool already led by then. Mac Allister is compiling a case to get a new contract, one classy goal at a time. Six days after a special strike against Atletico Madrid, he showed the name on the back of his shirt after finding the top corner from the edge of the box. At this rate, Liverpool should delay any offer of a new deal, if only to incentivise him to score more high-quality goals in the meantime. A senior figure with some distinctly inexperienced players around and in front of him, he had an added responsibility. He ended with an assist, too, playing the pass to Gakpo. Mac Allister, whose name was chorused regularly, said: “I am feeling the love of the fans.”

Szoboszlai had been benched, emerging to unleash an unstoppable shot in added time. It completed a terrific night for Liverpool.

Iraola had described the performance in Saturday’s stalemate against Fulham as a step backwards. This was a sizeable step forwards. He had a forward duo with a difference, replacing the £241m double act of Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz with the academy products Lewis Koumas, making his first Liverpool start in two-and-a-half years, and James McConnell.

Koumas set the tone with his running. “The energy he shows is contagious for the rest,” said Iraola. The forward was denied a goal by Dubravka but, with his work ethic, he may have provided a lesson to Isak.

A glimpse at the team-sheets, with Trey Nyoni a third rookie in the Liverpool line-up, should have afforded Tottenham a golden opportunity. But, as has become very apparent, this is a team that struggles to take its chances.

The pressure of their goalless start to the league campaign perhaps showed. “We have to shoot more times and we have to shoot better and we have to finish better the clear situations,” said De Zerbi. Instead, Mamardashvili repelled a low shot from the advancing Lucas Bergvall. Mohammed Kudus, starting for the first time since January, was guilty of a glaring miss when he volleyed over from close range. In the second half, he had a shot parried by Mamardashvili.

At least Tottenham scored, their first goal against Premier League opposition – if not in the top flight – since Joao Palhinha’s May winner against Everton. Amid a downpour, Conor Gallagher ended their drought, heading in Mateus Fernandes’ corner. The otherwise excellent Mamardashvili missed it.

Yet the evening ended with Gakpo wearing the Liverpool armband, sliding on the sodden Anfield turf, celebrating Szoboszlai’s magnificent strike. Gakpo can be glad he stayed, and Liverpool that they kept him. Tottenham can only add to their list of regrets.