Jermaine Jenas stated that the mentality needed to change at Tottenham and compared them to their Premier League rivals Liverpool.
The BBC pundit was looking ahead to Spurs’ clash with the Reds on Saturday and opted to try to explain why he thought Jurgen Klopp’s side currently looked stronger.
Jenas suggested that he had more confidence in the Reds travelling to face the bigger sides in the division and getting a result, while a mentality change was needed at Spurs for them do regularly beat their top-six rivals away from home.
“When I look at Spurs, am I confident of them going to Anfield? No,” said Jenas on BBC 5 Live Sport (Friday September 14, 19:25).
“Am I’m confident of them going to City?
“I don’t think Mauricio or Tottenham even after the great result at Old Trafford, which was by the way was against a Manchester United side whose confidence wasn’t the best at the time, they were right up against it, not to take anything away from the result.
“It was a great result but when I look at Liverpool I feel they can get better results than Tottenham this year for some reason.
“What I’m trying to say is over the course of a season when you’re going to these grounds on numerous occasions, there needs to be a mentality change which I thought I saw in the game against Manchester United and I don’t know I just think all it boils down to right now is I do look at Liverpool and think they’re a stronger side.”
OPINION
It’s easy to see where Jenas is coming from as after Liverpool demolished Manchester City in January last season and achieve success in the Champions League against them, you wouldn’t write them off beating any other Premier League side. However despite Spurs arguably putting in a fantastic second-half display against Manchester United in this campaign to brush them aside, you wouldn’t back them to repeat that feat on a regular basis. Jenas believes it’s a mentality issue but surely Spurs players and Pochettino should believe they’re capable of beating anyone at this point. The London club have been competing at the higher end of the table for the last few seasons now and should be aware that they possess enough quality to cause any side problems. Yet for some reason it is hard to argue with Jenas’ assessment as more often than not, the rest of the top-six seem to be able to cope with Spurs’ threat.