Graphic: Cashing in on the Redknapp effect

There is more than one way to win, or indeed lose, a match. In possibly the biggest clash of cultures since the Land Rushers came up against the Native Americans, an intriguing battle between foreign and British managers, coherence and chaos, perspiration and inspiration, ended in an unfathomable victory for the old school. Little wonder that the supremely organised Rafael BenÍtez could not understand it.

The Liverpool manager’s approach was best illustrated by a vignette on the touchline in the 66th minute, when Ryan Babel was preparing to go on as a substitute with the visiting team threatening to add to their one-goal lead. Mauricio Pellegrino, the former Argentina defender who is the club’s assistant manager, painstakingly delivered instructions to the Holland forward using an A4 sheet of paper on which were printed nine separate diagrams of pitches divided into different zones, presumably designed to highlight optimum areas of movement. Military invasions have been plotted with less precision.

Harry Redknapp’s first substitution was conducted rather differently, using a Russian interpreter less concerned by detail during a half-time dressing-down after a woeful opening 45 minutes from Tottenham Hotspur. “I told him to tell him to ****ing run about,” Redknapp said, when asked what instructions he had passed on to Roman Pavlyuchenko, who responded by scoring the winner in injury time.

“They can’t come back when you score later on, can they?” he added, as if it had been planned all along. “You look at that clock and think you’ve got a chance.”

Like the best managers in any walk of life, Redknapp’s gift is to make everything sound straightforward, but there is more to him than that. Despite his attempts to paint himself as an old-fashioned football man – his language, quips, bets and tolerance of a high-fat diet for his players come straight out of his playing days in the 1970s – Redknapp thinks deeply about the game with considerable success, as was shown by several other incidents on Saturday.

With Liverpool in command in the first half, Redknapp made two substitutions to switch to an attacking 4-2-4 formation at half-time, introduced Aaron Lennon when he saw the visiting team tiring after Jamie Carragher had headed into his own net, then dropped Darren Bent back into midfield as Tottenham briefly had to protect their lead. BenÍtez’s introduction of Babel in place of Robbie Keane, on the other hand, allowed the home side to seize the initiative.

“People always say I’m a wheeler-dealer, but I got my coaching badge when I was 21,” Redknapp said. “I went to Bournemouth as a coach and I love coaching. The only reason I wheel and deal is because I have always taken over teams at the bottom of the league – at Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Southampton, Portsmouth again and even here. I’d love to walk into a club where you don’t need to buy any players, like Manchester United or Chelsea, and just get on with it.”

Redknapp should get plenty of opportunities to be reacquainted with his first love over the next few months, because, despite a haul of seven points from three matches, Spurs still have countless problems. All the money in the world would not make up for their deficiencies and the club’s spending is expected to be limited during January in any case, leaving Redknapp to indulge in his second love – free transfers.

Heurelho Gomes is a liability, with his continued presence in goal not saying much for the ability of his deputy, César Sánchez, though both would benefit from playing regularly behind the same back four, rather than one that has changed 11 times in the past 15 matches. Tottenham’s midfield has enough quality to win more than their share of matches despite being infuriatingly inconsistent, with the self-styled Superman, David Bentley, playing as if he had kryptonite in his boots during the first half before recovering to help to create Pavlyuchenko’s winner. Bent provided the assist for the Russian to tap in his second goal for the club, leaving Redknapp to conclude that the pair can form an effective partnership despite views to the contrary of Juande Ramos, Redknapp’s predecessor.

“It is strange that you pay £16 million for Bent and then you go and pay £14 million for Pavlyuchenko and you realise they can’t play together,” Redknapp said. “There are only three strikers here at the moment, and one of them is a young lad on loan from Manchester United [Fraizer Campbell], so they have got to play together and make it work.”

BenÍtez may regret removing his main strike weapon midway through the second half because, with Keane creating space, Steven Gerrard and Dirk Kuyt had caused Tottenham no end of problems, though Liverpool’s most obvious weakness was the one he could do nothing to correct – the absence of clinical finishing. Fernando Torres’s expected return from a hamstring injury against Atlético Madrid tomorrow should improve matters, but BenÍtez will be more anxious for his side to return to winning ways against West Bromwich Albion on Saturday.

“Chelsea have shown since we beat them that they are a good team and we have to do the same,” he said. “It’s a very long race and it’s very difficult to win every game, because all the teams are really strong. If we do that, we will be there at the end.”

BenÍtez has not yet encountered his Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Mark of Respect - 7/10

Phil Dowd had a relatively quiet afternoon, with his only real duties dishing out yellow cards for a series of overzealous sliding tackles. No one complained much, and rightly so.

Tottenham (4-4-2): H Gomes 4 V Corluka 6 L King 6 J Woodgate 5 B Assou-Ekotto 4 D Bentley 6 T Huddlestone 6 D Zokora 6 J O’Hara 5 L Modric 7 D Bent 6 Substitutes: A Hutton 5 (for Assou-Ekotto, 46min), R Pavlyuchenko 6 (for O’Hara, 46), A Lennon (for Modric, 75). Not used: C Sánchez, G Bale, C Gunter, F Campbell. Next: Man City (a).

Liverpool (4-2-3-1): J M Reina 6 Á Arbeloa 6 J Carragher 6 D Agger 6 A Dossena 5 J Mascherano 6 X Alonso 7 D Kuyt 7 S Gerrard 7 A Riera 6 R Keane 6 Substitutes: R Babel 5 (for Keane, 66min), Y Benayoun (for Riera, 78). Not used: D Cavalieri, S Hyypia, F Aurélio, Lucas Leiva, N El Zhar. Next: West Bromwich Albion (h).

Referee P Dowd Attendance 36,183