Spurs no walkover, says cautious Klopp
● Mauricio Pochettino said he is happy his Tottenham Hotspur players have rediscovered the winning feeling as they head to Anfield to face Premier League leaders Liverpool today.
And Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is well aware that Spurs poor start to the season does not mean they have forgotten how to play football and he expects the north London club to put in a ‘proper performance’ today.
Both teams had good results in the Champions League in midweek, with Spurs thumping Red Star Belgrade 5-0 and Liverpool beating Genk 4-1 and Klopp said his team were more concerned by Spurs’ latest performance than their earlier struggles.
“What I can say is we saw a very good Tottenham
side on Tuesday night and that’s what we think about,” the German told a news conference. “Not why Tottenham’s start to the season is not as (the media) and they expected. It’s not that they forgot how to play football.”
A 5-0 win over Red Star Belgrade on Tuesday was the ideal tonic for Pochettino after a difficult start to the season he partly attributes to losing to Liverpool in the Champions League final in Madrid in June.
Tottenham are seventh in the Premier League after losing to Brighton and Hove Albion and drawing with bottom club Watford in their last two games.
They are already 13 points behind a Liverpool side they lost 2-0 to in Madrid — a defeat that left Pochettino “feeling empty” at the start of the new campaign.
“The Champions League final is all or nothing and it was nothing,” Pochettino said. “To be second for us is nothing. It means a lot of the club to reach final of Champions League, but players and the staff felt empty after the game.
“With time you can say, ‘okay, we played in the final of the Champions League’ but that will always be the deal.”
While Tottenham’s record against Liverpool since Pochettino took over in 2014 makes grim reading — one win in 12 games — they have stood toe-to-toe with Klopp’s side at Anfield. They lost 2-1 there last season despite dominating the second half and drew 2-2 the season before that.
Pochettino says the key to his side’s prospects this season is finding the balance that has been missing.
Against Red Star they posed a great attacking threat with Kane, Son Heung-min and Erik Lamela forming a dynamic trident with Dele Ali tucked in behind as an advanced central midfielder.
It would be a brave call to line up like that against a Liverpool side with such a potent strike force. “With Liverpool they have an amazing front three in (Roberto) Firmino, (Mo) Salah and (Sadio) Mane, but when they don’t have the ball they have the likes of (Jordan) Henderson and (James) Milner . . . to give balance,” he said. — Reuters