Virgil worth his weight for us
JURGEN KLOPP knows Tottenham will provide a daunting examination of a defence that remains a work in progress following the signing of Virgil van Dijk.
But he backed the £75 million Dutchman to hold firm against a blizzard of attacking football when the two clubs go headto-head in a “six-pointer” at Anfield tomorrow.
Van Dijk became the most expensive defensive signing in history in January after a move from Southampton and gave two towering performances in his first two matches against Everton and Swansea.
But following that promising start, the international’s fitness has been called into question; he was shaky against West Brom in the FA Cup and then dropped for the midweek fixture against Huddersfield.
Predictably Klopp launched a solid defence of his new signing. “I am very happy with Virgil’s progress but we will see him at his best after the summer,” he said.
“Our defending is different to Southampton and Holland so it will take some time to get used to it.”
It was former Reds defender Jamie Carragher who said Van Dijk was carrying too much weight, a suggestion Klopp laughed off yesterday.
“I’m sure Jamie needs to lose a bit of weight but Virgil does not,” he said. “But he has had a long injury, then he played, then he didn’t [during the protracted transfer], so it’s not a consistent season so far.”
Van Dijk was a Saints player when Spurs humbled a sorry Liverpool 4-1 at Wembley in October – when Klopp substituted Dejan Lovren at 2-1 after just half an hour, a decision which angered the player.
Klopp, who insisted he has smoothed things out with Lovren since, warned his side of a similar assault from Mauricio Pochettino’s side who are two points behind third-placed Liverpool in fifth.
And they face, in particular, an examination of the pace at the heart of his defence.
“Harry Kane is always on the shoulder waiting for balls over the top. Son Heung-Min as well and that is a specific threat of Tottenham,” said Klopp.
“We played them before and that was also the strength then. But there are plenty of other situations they can score from and they use pretty much each angle you can score from. Son and Eriksen from distance,
Dele Alli always in the box, Kane everywhere. I only mention these four guys but there are a few more who are able to do things.
“Toby Alderweireld is back as well and that makes another set-piece threat.”
On the plus side, Klopp’s side have conceded just seven goals at home this season – only Manchester United are more watertight at home with five – and they have not found scoring too much of a chore, either.
Pochettino is out to improve the club’s miserable away record against top sides which the Argentine claims cost them the title. In 18 trips to his fellow Big Six sides, Spurs have won just once since he arrived in 2014, while at home their tally of 35 points against the same opposition has not been bettered by anybody over the same period.
Pochettino is at a loss to explain the contrasting fortunes but says that it was away results over the last two seasons which cost them in the chase first of Leicester and then Chelsea.
“It is why maybe we missed a title, why we don’t win the Premier League,” he said. “Maybe because we are the younger team in the Premier League, maybe we need time to mature. “There are many reasons why this happens that we cannot win most of the games we play away from home. “We finished second last season, third the season before and, of course, if we had won more games away, I’m sure we’d have won the title. But we miss something to achieve that.” Spurs spent £25m in the window to sign Lucas Moura from Paris Saint-Germain, but Pochettino told the fans not to expect it to be one of the bigger ones.
“We signed a player who is not playing at PSG,” he said after all but ruling him out of tomorrow’s game, after Moura had to return to Paris yesterday, for “private things”.
“Of course Lucas Moura is, for our fans, an exciting name. And he came from PSG, a big club. But it is different if you sign Neymar or Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo.
“It is not a signing that, if he doesn’t score goals from the beginning, it is a mistake. That is why we need to be calm.”