If you wanted a moment that encapsulated Tottenham's night in Liverpool it came shortly after the final whistle at Anfield on Thursday.

An emotional looking Rodrigo Bentancur was heading towards the tunnel in the aftermath of the crushing semi-final second leg defeat. Before the 27-year-old got there, 18-year-old Lucas Bergvall went over and reminded him to come and applaud the 6,000 Tottenham fans who were either about to embark on the long trip home or stay over in a city that would be half-celebrating through the night.

Bentancur was nowhere near the worst player in a Spurs shirt on the night, but it was a moment that summed yet another night when Ange Postecoglou's senior players forgot their role and looked like debutants wracked with fear while the younger ones showed the fight and fearlessness that the night needed.

The entire Postecoglou ethos is about being brave and bold, while taking the game to the opposition no matter the circumstances. This performance was anything but. It was timid, meek and terrified at times.

People have called for the Australian to be more pragmatic. While the long list of 10 unavailable players - now 11 - continues to limit his selection decisions, this was as pragmatic a line-up as he could put out and Spurs duly sat within their own third for much of the game.

Liverpool had 64% of the possession, an expected goals (xG) of 3.72 to Tottenham's paltry 0.18 and the visitors duly had just five shots at goal, without a single one on target. In contrast the hosts managed 26 efforts, with 10 on target.

Spurs registered almost half of Liverpool's number of successful passes, with 255 to the 505 Arne Slot's men produced. Most tellingly, Tottenham players had just eight touches in the Liverpool box, compared to the 54 that the home side managed. That there was not a single yellow card in the game said more about the visiting side's aggression than it did their hosts.

Liverpool are the best side in Europe right now and they are devastating at times in their play with players at the peak of their powers, but the least Tottenham could have done for those 6,000 travelling fans was turn up and put up a fight and look like they weren't terrified by it all.

It was everything that Postecoglou preaches against on display on the big stage.

When football.london put that to the 59-year-old, he nodded and said: "Yeah it is disappointing. It’s not the fact that we have come here and lost. It’s a difficult place to come to and they are in a great moment right now. It would be difficult for anyone to come here.

"I would have liked us to play more like who we are than we did tonight. There is a lesson in there for us for sure that if we kind of veer away from that it almost becomes impossible for us."

He added: "It's fair to say we didn't get to the levels we needed to. It was always going to be a big challenge for us. They're obviously a very good side and in a great moment with all their players in very good form, very settled.

"But for us to give ourselves an opportunity, we had to be a lot more aggressive with and without the ball and we weren't. We allowed them to control the game and dictate where it was played. In the end, they were too good for us."

Liverpool were probably stunned at how easy Spurs made it for them on the night. Postecoglou's side had scored four against them in the previous two meetings (albeit conceding six).

This version of Tottenham was meek and mild and more in keeping with Spurs sides of the past.

It was entirely fitting therefore that one of those captains of previous horrible years, Jamie Redknapp, should launch into a rant about his old team.

"From Tottenham's perspective, I cannot remember a team in my lifetime go down with less of a fight than they did tonight," he said. "Not having one shot on target in the semi-final second-leg, when you're trying to change the course of your history - I feel sorry for those young players. I think Djed Spence played 14 different positions, I've never seen anything like it.

"When you've got young players you're meant to help them. Archie Gray and Bergvall, they're trying their best but the senior players, I'd be looking at them to lead you to make sure you set the right tempo, they didn't do that. There's been some right lows this season, Palace, Everton, but that today, that scoreline, just horrendous."

Redknapp, when fit, had some absolute stinkers himself at Spurs. A 3-0 defeat at home to Middlesbrough while captaining the side and a 5-1 hammering in the reverse fixture, albeit scoring after he came on at half-time. His Spurs lost 3-0 at home to Fulham and 3-1 at White Hart Lane to Southampton the next season, both with him wearing the captain's armband, in a year when Spurs finished 14th. They ended up 10th in the first campaign.

While lacking a touch of self-awareness, Redknapp's grandstanding was not inaccurate when it came to the divide in performance between the senior players and the youngsters.

Djed Spence played as a left-back and right winger during the game while Archie Gray was utilised as a right-back, left-back and eventually a centre-back on the night as both fought for everything and always showed for the ball when someone was in a tough spot.

The senior players were poor and hesitant throughout, most of them deers in the headlights.

Yves Bissouma is 28-years-old but there's a reason he rarely, if ever, wears the captain's armband for Tottenham. He couldn't lead anyone out of a paper bag.

On his day, the Mali international is a skilful, tackling machine. On others, he's an aimless passenger with little awareness of the game around him. This was one of those nights when Spurs needed the best version of him rather than the tourist that turned up, a spectator in awe of Anfield and the occasion.

Liverpool's opening goal came when a potentially dangerous Spurs break spluttered in its conception because Bissouma played a lazy ball in his own half behind a team-mate when it was a simple pass and Mohamed Salah broke and the Egyptian's bouncing cross reached Cody Gakpo to half-volley home.

Bissouma would touch the ball just 33 times on the night. For context, Ryan Gravenberch did so on 70 occasions. Spence and Gray saw the most of the ball for the visitors with 58 and 55 touches respectively.

Bentancur managed 50 but was equally hesitant at times, not helped by a lack of movement around him or people wanting to receive the ball. Even watching the Spurs players from throw-ins was embarrassing, nobody really wanting to show to receive it.

"When I look at those three midfield players, they're a disgrace," said Jamie Carragher alongside Redknapp. "No matter who your manager is, you're playing a semi-final, you get on the ball, if you're a Tottenham man, first 15 minutes, half-an-hour, Liverpool will be on the ball but get after them, be aggressive. Even if you're camped in your own half, it was still so easy.

"We've criticised Ange Postecoglou - called him naïve at times - that looks like a team that was picked before the game that said; 'right, we're going to make it difficult for Liverpool, powerful players, three proper central midfield players'. I thought that was a team to stop Liverpool, that's what most teams do, but those midfielders didn't even put a challenge in. It was shocking."

Further up the pitch, captain Son barely saw much of the ball, his only moments of near impact coming late in the game with a shot that hit the crossbar and another curled over it.

Even more disappointing was Dejan Kulusevski. The Swede had been Spurs' player of the season by a distance before recent months but now looks overplayed, constantly shattered and seemingly restricted in his movement at times.

One of the 24-year-old's strengths has often been to keep possession of the ball and get Spurs up the pitch. Other than a couple of occasions on Thursday night, passing to Kulusevski was like passing against a wall as the ball just bounced off him.

Only one of his five attempted dribbles was a success and he looks in desperate need of a week on a beach somewhere for he looks thoroughly beaten down and jaded with life at Tottenham in general. The 6,000 travelling fans at Anfield know how he feels as do millions more around the world.

Then were was Richarlison. The Brazilian lasted until just before the interval when a half-speed run for an Archie Gray ball over the top ended with the forward dropping to the floor in frustration and banging the turf repeatedly with the palm of his hand.

"It looks like his calf. It didn't look too good after the game, so probably one to add to the list," Postecoglou told football.london.

Richarlison had been involved in an earlier tussle with Van Dijk, the Dutchman catching him with an elbow in the face before later mocking him by putting a hand out to help the forward up after another challenge only to take it away at the last moment.

Postecoglou and Spurs have taken it as cautiously as possible with Richarlison, giving him weeks of full training before exposing him to match situations and even then managing his minutes carefully.

Yet he was able to take part in just seven matches before returning to the treatment room, a snapshot of his time at Tottenham really. Spurs paid £60million to prise him away from Everton but he has not been able to provide anywhere near the game time that such a fee should dictate.

Postecoglou would have wanted to play him less in the past couple of matches, Dominic Solanke's own injury having a knock-on effect.

Spurs must still be ruing Richarlison's decision to snub lucrative moves to the Saudi Pro League, for they will struggle to get much now for a Brazil number nine who has muscles that constantly let him down.

With his absence, so Mathys Tel came in for a premature debut. The 19-year-old reportedly wants to play more as a central striker but the teenager does not have the physical strength yet to handle playing as a lone front man in a game like this.

The Frenchman showed some nice touches and plenty of willing, but like Richarlison he found little joy in battling with Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate. This was not the game to judge Tel on.

His fellow debutant Kevin Danso was, with Spence, one of the game's few positives. The Austria international played how Postecoglou wanted him to, on the front foot and aggressively and his suitability for the system was clear.

His first touch of the ball was a big Toby Alderweireld-esque diagonal pass that found its man and he consistently took opportunities to get up the pitch on driving runs with the ball at his feet.

"Yeah they did OK. Kevin was really positive, as was Mathys," Postecoglou told football.london of the two new boys. "It's hard, you know, throwing guys in after their first training sessions, it's not ideal. That's part of our dilemma at the moment of trying to get some fluency and consistency but also knowing we have to keep tinkering with the starting line up to account for everything going on. But I thought they acquitted themselves well."

Any hopes Spurs had had of getting something from the tie began to dissolve quickly early in the second half when Antonin Kinsky mistimed his rush out of goal and brought down Darwin Nunez. Salah's resulting penalty was perfectly curled into the top left corner of the net.

The third goal was the most embarrassing of the bunch as Liverpool cut through that non-existent midfield with 21-year-old right-back Conor Bradley able to run through the centre of the pitch without a care in the world before teeing up Dominik Szoboszlai to slot home.

The game was already long gone before Van Dijk brushed Ben Davies aside and leapt above him and Danso to power home a corner.

Postecoglou was asked about Redknapp's rant after the game and whether it was fair.

"You’re asking me? Ask Jamie. He has obviously made the comment," said the Australian. "I know people get really excited by things like that. People are on TV to give opinions and that’s what they do. That’s their job. My job is not to scan the TV or the commentary on our games.

"My job is to manage this football club and whatever people think or don’t think is kind of irrelevant. It doesn’t really matter. It doesn’t really put any sort of emphasis on who we are and what we are trying to do. At the end of the day everybody is allowed to have an opinion. Everyone is allowed to express that opinion.

"My view is I don’t really need to respond to that or be affected by that because I don’t care. Whether it’s Jamie Redknapp or anyone else. I don’t care. It doesn’t worry me. It doesn’t bother me."

What should bother Postecoglou is that his version of Tottenham currently is a one step forward, two steps back affair.

There's no doubting or overlooking the ridiculous amount of injuries that have tied one of his hands behind his back with team selection and in-game management but that will not excuse such a fearful display when Spurs needed to stick to his philosophy more than ever. It reflected on him as much as it did the players.

"I think they understood the opportunity for sure. When the reality of it out there hits you, it's a bit different to maybe what you envisioned in your head," said the Spurs head coach.

"We'll learn from tonight but the major lesson to learn is that we can't go into games like this looking to protect or try to get results in other ways than what's got us to this point. I'm sure the players will learn from that, I'm sure they're disappointed by that.

"As much as we've missed an opportunity to get to a final, what probably is hurting even more is that we didn't really give ourselves a chance with our performance tonight."

Postecoglou needs some of the long list of injured players to recover in time for Sunday's FA Cup tie at Aston Villa for he needs something fresh from his side. This insipid performance and the result it deserved must at least remind the players that they should as a bare minimum be bold in their endeavours if they are to ever change what Spurs are known for.

Win at Villa Park and there is still plenty to play for this season. Lose and all of Tottenham's eggs must be placed in their Europa League basket and such results mean Postecoglou might not be the one able to carry it for much longer.

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