BBC pundit Danny Murphy has said the long break will suit Tottenham more than Liverpool when the two sides clash in the Champions League final in Madrid on Saturday.
He was responding to former Tottenham player Graham Roberts who said he had watched the Tottenham players training and that they had been put through a “mini-pre-season” by manager Mauricio Pochettino.
Talking on the Jim White show (talkSPORT, Thursday, midday), Roberts was understandably bullish about Tottenham’s prospects.
“If you don’t go there confident you’ve got no chance. I’m very confident,” Roberts said.
“I went and watched them play on Tuesday and they were flying. They’ve had a mini pre-season and it’s the first time he’s had all 24-25 players to train. We know Liverpool are a very good side but Tottenham are a great side too.”
“That’s fascinating that,” Murphy said. “I remember in the 2006 World Cup, Italian chap who worked with Sven. Depending on how much you’d played, if you hadn’t played a lot you’d be working hard. If you’d played a lot you wouldn’t.
“It’s going to be fascinating to see the intensity of both sides from the start. I think the gap’s too long but it will suit Tottenham better than Liverpool. When you’re playing every few days with such pressure like Liverpool, okay they missed out on winning the league, but how many times did they win at the end of the season? 10 or 11 times?
“You get used to that and you get confident, think no one can beat us. Then there’s a big gap. Many footballers I know hated international breaks, you had to create intensity in training. Tottenham finished the season poorly so a break could have done them good.”
OPINION
Liverpool were absolutely flying at the end of the season so we can see where Murphy is coming from, but we don’t think they’ll need much motivation to lift themselves for such a big game. However, we completely agree that the gap is too long. It feels like the Premier League finished months ago and there will be a natural drop-off after such an intense season. Why can’t the Champions League final be at least a week closer to the end of the season? The Europa league final played out on Wednesday and it took the players until the second-half to really start playing. They all looked lethargic in the first-half and that ended 0-0 before Chelsea blew Arsenal away 4-1 in the second-half. Hopefully, the magnitude of the game will get the adrenaline coursing through both sets of players on Saturday evening. It could be a classic and we really hope the two English sides can highlight why we think the Premier League is currently the best in Europe.