Mark Holmes blasts Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers for lying and suggests Tottenham have a 'rotten core' which will not be fixed any time soon.
Rodgers wrong to lie to fans
When Brendan Rodgers made seven changes for Liverpool's Champions League tie at Real Madrid, he was doing what he believed was best for the team.
Having seen his first-choice side beaten 3-0 at home by the European champions two weeks previously, Rodgers came to the understandable conclusion that it would be of greater benefit to rest some of his star men for the trip to the Bernabeu than it would be to play them from the outset in a game Liverpool would probably lose anyway.
With a Premier League game against Chelsea to follow four days later, there was definitely logic behind Rodgers' decision. Jose Mourinho's men were in European action 24 hours later than the Reds; it was certainly feasible their unbeaten run could be ended at Anfield against a largely rested side.
It didn't quite work out how Rodgers had hoped, of course - we will come to that - but not every decision a manager makes pays off. This one didn't, but Rodgers still has plenty of credit left in the bank following last season's heroics.
However, while the Northern Irishman doesn't deserve derision for the actual decision, he certainly does for the rather patronising, disrespectful way he tried to explain it, i.e. by denying he rested anyone against Madrid.
"We knew we had a real tough game tonight, but I didn't rest players for Saturday," he insisted after the game. "I picked what I thought could get the result for us tonight, and I think the performance showed that. I don't think any other players I could have put in tonight could have put in the performance we put in."
A battling performance and narrow 1-0 defeat in Spain earned Rodgers some breathing space - fans bought into the idea the manager had dropped rather than rested his underperforming so-called stars - but it also caused him a problem. The stand-ins impressed.
However, rather than stick with the likes of Kolo Toure and Fabio Borini against Chelsea, Rodgers reverted almost completely back to the team that had lost at Newcastle in the Premier League the weekend before.
He suggested a meritocracy was in place after the Madrid game yet, despite an improved team display, Emre Can was the only player among the eight stand-ins to keep his spot against Chelsea. Dejan Lovren, Mario Balotelli and co. returned straight to the starting XI.
Rodgers lied to the fans. Many backed his decision to leave out the big names in Spain, but only on the proviso that they had indeed been dropped.
Now knowing that Rodgers had in fact played what he believes to be a second-string side, how many of them feel differently? It is not every day you get to watch your team take on Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, yet Rodgers did not pick the side he believes to be his best.
In one way the narrow defeat justifies his selection, but it may also leave fans wondering 'what if'. On a night that Real did not play well by their standards, did Rodgers pass up the opportunity of another famous win?
Rodgers in dire need of improvement
It is all ifs, buts and maybes, of course, but the bottom line is that the gamble did not pay off - and that puts Rodgers' decision-making this season further under the spotlight.
Why, for example, despite adding Simon Mignolet, Mamadou Sakho, Kolo Toure, Dejan Lovren, Alberto Moreno and Javi Manquillo to his squad, are Liverpool still so poor at the back?
Is it because of tactics or coaching methods - that would perhaps explain why the Reds continue to leak goals from set-piece situations - or is it Rodgers' procurement that is the problem?
Of the 14 players that got on the pitch against Chelsea, nine - Mignolet, Lovren, Moreno, Can, Philippe Coutinho, Balotelli, Rickie Lambert, Joe Allen and Fabio Borini - were signed by the current manager. It is early days for some of them, but only Coutinho and at a push Allen could claim to have justified the money spent on them so far.
Rodgers' most successful signing, of course, Daniel Sturridge, is currently out injured, and there is no doubt that Liverpool's fortunes will improve once he is back in the team. He may well bring out the best in Balotelli, too.
However, it is not a great indictment of Liverpool as a team that they appear to be so reliant on one player, and it is not a great indictment of Rodgers' tactical nous that he has been unable to formulate a successful game plan in the absence of Sturridge.
Using the departure of Luis Suarez as an excuse only adds to the feeling that Liverpool's relative success last season was down to brilliant players rather than brilliant management.
Rodgers is a good manager, and it is too early in the season to truly judge him post-Suarez, but so far in that era the 41-year-old has made many more bad decisions than good ones.
Pochettino not the problem at Spurs
Yet again, just 11 games into the Premier League season, there are questions being asked of the latest Tottenham manager.
Most of the criticism has come from supporters, which is understandable, but it is hard to shake the feeling that Daniel Levy's fingers may be starting to twitch again.
This, of course, is a man that has sacked eight different managers in his 13 years as chairman at White Hart Lane, including three in the last 29 months. He will almost certainly not hesitate to add Mauricio Pochettino to that list if results do not pick up shortly.
However, the penny should surely have dropped by now to everyone associated with the club that the manager - this one and a number of the previous ones - is not the problem. The squad simply isn't good enough.
Former Spurs striker Mido on Sunday described the current team as the worst he has seen in 10 years, and it is hard to disagree. But that is not Pochettino's fault, or Sherwood's, or even Andre Villas-Boas'. The former has bought in only a smattering of his own players so far, and the latter claims to have objected against four of the seven signings made by the club last summer.
Spurs' transfer business in recent times, both in and out, has been disastrous, and blame must lie with Levy and technical director Franco Baldini, the two constants aside the managerial merry-go-round.
Baldini's head must roll for the mistakes, and Levy, having appointed Pochettino, must now give the Argentine time to build his own team at White Hart Lane. Only then will Spurs stand a chance of getting back to where they want to be.
Tottenham's rotten core
Pochettino is not the main problem at Spurs and cannot be blamed for the sub-standard squad at his disposal, but that is not to say he has not made mistakes during his short time in charge.
Why, for example, did he play two strikers in the recent, admittedly hugely fortunate, win at Aston Villa only to revert to one in attack for the home game against Stoke on Sunday? Why did he choose to finally hand young Harry Kane a Premier League start as a lone striker despite all the evidence suggesting he works much better with a partner?
Why did he pair Federico Fazio with Younes Kaboul in defence, despite the fact that neither of them are left-sided? With Jan Vertonghen, Spurs' best defender, sat on the bench, Fazio and Kaboul swapped sides for the second half after an alarmingly bad first-half performance had seen the hosts fall two goals behind.
Pochettino seems no more capable of successfully rotating his squad for Europa League and Premier League games than Villas-Boas was before him. It is not, as stated, his fault that the likes of Danny Rose and Kyle Naughton are required so much, but he should still have realised that the team he picked to face Stoke was not good enough.
Surely, after a successful 18 months at Southampton, he knows better than to underestimate the likes of Stoke, Newcastle and West Brom, all of whom have won at White Hart Lane this season?
All that said, Pochettino cannot account for the raft of individual mistakes his players made on Sunday, the complete lack of leadership shown by captain Kaboul, and the lack of fight displayed by several players, not least substitute Emmanuel Adebayor, to get Spurs back into the game.
The club has a rotten core - and it will take years to sort it out.
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