Liverpool and Tottenham Meet in EFL Cup Amidst Costly Attack Struggles

If there were much in the way of correlation between spending and results, one might expect Tuesday's EFL Cup tie between Liverpool and Tottenham to be a clash of early season free scorers. Instead sides who since the start of last season have committed nearly one billion dollars to strengthening their attack face off at Anfield on Tuesday night with both struggling to jump start their scoring.

For Liverpool, the crisis is not so immediate. Six goals from their first four games is perfectly adequate on the surface level, the eighth-best return of any side in the division. Their 6.72 expected goals is the sixth best in the division, though scrub penalties from the equation and Andoni Iraola's side sit ninth at a little under one and a half xG per game. That is not bad, per se, for a team that is without last season's top scorer Hugo Ekitike and that is adapting to the demands of a new head coach.

There are, however, a few caveats that paint a more worrying picture on those early season numbers. First and most obvious, Liverpool's fixture list has been a kind one out of the gate. Ok an emotionally charged road game against Newcastle to start off the campaign is tricky, but if this is by some distance your hardest task in a run of four matches then that should be a period to run up the goals and xG. Instead, Liverpool have lumbered: 1.75 xG when chasing the game against Nottingham Forest, 1.3 against Fulham.

These are middling numbers for any team aspiring for top six, worse for a side like Liverpool, for whom the foundations of the post-Kloppian age are hyper-priced attackers. Ninety-eight minutes are too few to assess Bradley Barcola, while it will be some time before Ekitike is back to the impressive levels he showed before his Achilles injury last season.

As for the other two, who may not see the pitch on Tuesday night, the spotlight is brighter. It is at least shining a more favorable light on Alexander Isak, trailing only Erling Haaland in the scoring charts with three from his first four. As with the team as a whole, there is the caveat of opposition quality, but Isak has got three shots in every league game so far except the win over Ipswich, when he had scored with his first two anyway. That he did not have quite the same shooting joy against Atletico Madrid is for now perhaps not indicative of a great deal, particularly as he got an assist in that game.

There are encouraging signs for Florian Wirtz too. Averaging nearly 40 high pressures per 90 minutes is encouraging in a team as possession-dominant as Liverpool, all the more so when it is being coached by Iraola, who demands so much of his players without the ball. The manager will doubtless be impressed by 21 ball recoveries, the most of anyone in the team.

Those statistics do not, however, change the broader Wirtz story. As with last season, the overall play has been more impressive than skeptics might suggest, but when you're buying $135 million worth of talent that has proven itself capable of leading a side to a Bundesliga title, those bars above need to be bright green much more consistently. Even 87th or 90th percentile aren't the aims here, to say nothing for the output you actually need. One assist in the Premier League just is not going to cut it.

Then again, it is one more than Tuesday's opponents have. Four games into the season, Tottenham share the dubious honor with newly promoted Coventry City of being the only teams yet to score in the Premier League. For now, Roberto De Zerbi has enough credit in the bank from keeping Spurs up last season that he can joke about back-to-back clean sheets. It will not last long on current trajectory.

Through those first four games, Spurs have just 3.45 xG, 18th in the division, but the curious thing is how much they are doing right before they take their shots. De Zerbi's side are excellent at playing the game in the areas they want to occupy, averaging about 77 more touches per game in the attacking third than they allow in the defensive third. It's a similarly impressive story in the penalty area, where Tottenham have the eighth most touches in the box at around 30 per match. The likes of Jan Paul van Hecke and Mateus Fernandes appear to have immediately solved the ball progression issues at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The ball is moving into dangerous areas; it's just that nothing happens, typified in the 0-0 draw with Everton where all the possession and territory did not stop this being a game where Spurs' opponents had the best chances.

Roberto De Zerbi says Tottenham struggle to 'unblock ourselves' as goalless streak extends to four games James Benge

Now, perhaps those territorial statistics tell us more about game state than Tottenham. In every game bar perhaps the draw at Nottingham Forest, Spurs' opponents have been motivated to drop off with advantageous results to protect. Equally, such a strategy has never seemed a particularly risky one. An attack that against Everton included three forwards on whom this club were prepared to spend over £50 million -- in Omar Marmoush's case this is a loan option that is expected to become an obligation -- is struggling to apply any real pressure on goal.

Having only appeared in two games, right back Pedro Porro is one of Spurs' shot leaders in the Premier League. Mikey Moore, now on loan at Cologne, played just 90 minutes but is the only player with more than one shot on target. There is a risk that signing Manchester City's castoffs may backfire for Tottenham. Savio looks rather like he did at the Etihad Stadium, a lively winger who does not create sufficient good shots for others or many at all for his teammates. Marmoush too looks familiar, sparky but light on end product.

In an ideal world a cup tie might offer Spurs the chance to spark themselves into life, as they did in the 5-1 win against Charlton that De Zerbi emphatically insisted on Saturday should not be part of an assessment of his team so far. James Maddison and Mohamed Kudus could be in line for more minutes after coming off the bench on Saturday. Richarlison is eligible for this game, but the deterioration between the club and the wantaway player is such that the only fit and available forward with more than 15 Premier League goals for Spurs is not under consideration.

Iraola too has options to potentially shake up his attack. Rio Ngumoha started the season in the XI on a right flank that does not yet seem to have been decisively claimed, he might enter contention. So too might Cody Gakpo, yet to really kick on in any spot, but an option who could at least cover some center forward minutes when Isak needs to rest. The need to spark the attack is not quite as pronounced for Liverpool as it is for their opponents, but in these early stages of the season neither side can really argue that they're getting much bang for their buck.

How to watch Liverpool vs. Tottenham, odds

Date:  Tuesady, Sept. 15 |  Time:  3 p.m. ET Location:  Anfield -- Liverpool, United Kingdom Live stream:   Paramount+ Odds:  Liverpool -125; Draw +260; Tottenham +290

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_Originally reported by [CBS Sports](https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/liverpool-tottenham-efl-cup-live-stream-odds-attack/)._