Liverpool vs Tottenham Prediction, Starting Lineups and Odds: Best bets at Anfield

Liverpool lock horns with Tottenham tonight for the chance to face Newcastle in the Carabao Cup final.

Spurs claimed a narrow 1-0 victory in the first leg, but defending champions Liverpool are strongly fancied to stage a comeback and secure their third final appearance in four seasons.

Oli Nixon breaks down the matchup and shares his top betting picks ahead of the action.

Coming into the game with a one-goal advantage, Spurs will have hopes that their threadbare squad can get them to their first domestic final since 2021.

Failure to do so may well be the straw that breaks Ange Postecoglou’s back, however, he’ll be praying that victory can kickstart their season.

Liverpool have bigger fish to fry than the League Cup: they topped the Champions League group stages and are six points clear at the top of the Premier League.

Winning becomes a habit though, and having seen off Spurs 6-3 in December, Arne Slot will be confident of overturning their first-leg deficit.

Head-to-heads between these sides since Ange Postecoglou arrived in North London have consistently produced high tackle numbers. The four meetings since the Aussie took charge have seen counts of 41, 47, 40 and 38, all comfortably over this line with the two biggest totals coming this season.

With a place at Wembley at stake, this game should be heavily competitive and with Spurs having a goal start from the first leg, even if they capitulate early as they can do, they’ll still be in the tie and therefore flying into the tackles.

As well as the head-to-head data, the teams’ overall numbers have been strong domestically this season. Games at Anfield have averaged 35.23 tackles with six of 13 having 37 or more.

When Liverpool host the big boys, there’s been 37 tackles against Chelsea and 39 versus Man City and whilst Spurs aren’t in that category of opponent, the magnitude of this game should lend itself to tackles.

Tottenham are the most tackled side in the Premier League and their games across league and cup have seen an average of 40.38 tackles this season. Seven of their last eight games have seen 37 or more tackles and so they’re in good form for them too.

A strong contribution to the high expected tackle count is likely to come from Tottenham’s midfield. Liverpool are drawing huge tackle numbers in the middle of the park with their last 15 matches across all competitions seeing opposition central midfielders forced into 81 tackles between them with 26 of those players making at least two.

Tottenham were the opponents in two of those 15 matches and their central midfielders made 13 tackles between them, with Pape Sarr responsible for two in 59 minutes in his only start.

Sarr has made 2.32 tackles per 90 this season with at least two in 10 of his 19 starts. He’s recently struggled for fitness but having come off the bench to seal victory at Brentford on Sunday with a goal, he should be fit to start this crucial tie.

The Senegal international has made at least two tackles in two of his three appearances against Liverpool and with so much on the line and the likes of Alexis MacAllister, Dominik Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch to deal with, he'll be key to Spurs chances of progressing and looks a lovely price for at least two tackles.

Liverpool vs Tottenham Starting Lineups

The starting lineups for Liverpool vs Tottenham can be viewed in the graphic below.

Trent Alexander-Arnold has been ruled out for Liverpool. while Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero are doubts for Tottenham.