Klopp's Tottenham Hotspur analysis
Jürgen Klopp believes Liverpool must play unpredictable football in Saturday's Premier League showdown with Tottenham Hotspur.
The table-topping Reds pick up their league campaign with a trip to the capital to face a side they beat 2-1 at Anfield earlier in the season.
But Spurs have since changed manager, bringing in Jose Mourinho for Mauricio Pochettino in November, while talisman Harry Kane is sidelined with injury.
At his pre-match press conference on Friday, Klopp was asked for his analysis of the encounter and what he expects from Mourinho’s team.
“A very good organised Tottenham side; yes, putting some emphasis on defending, for sure, having counter-attacks – but the team is too good technically that they will do that only,” replied the Liverpool boss.
“So, if we let them play, they will play. Eriksen, Alli, Lo Celso, a lot of players in the midfield already that can create situations, speed there with Moura and Son, 100 per cent.
“They played a lot of times now with five in the back, I’m not sure if they will do it again, but if, then they have Aurier and Sessegnon on the wings on top of that with speed.
“It’s a home game for Tottenham, you usually go there and they create and try to dominate the game. All of them go for a result and that’s possible in different ways.
“We cannot be sure 100 per cent what they will do, but we obviously have signs and we have to think about what he did against us when he was at Man United with his team. But it will not be the same because it’s different players and we are a different opponent.
“All these things, that’s normal analysis. Analysis always ends quite a way from the truth, the reality, because we don’t know 100 per cent. They can all make their own decisions.
“But that’s the same thing for us, we want to be unpredictable, so we have to be unpredictable in this game, we have to make things they cannot prepare for and that’s what we try, of course.”
Klopp was also quizzed on the specific challenge of going head-to-head with Mourinho.
“Jose Mourinho is a world-class manager with a specific mindset, I would say: he wants to win with all he has. I respect that a lot,” he said.
“That means each situation his team is in, he tries to use for his team. If you would be now Tottenham in our situation and we come there, he would try to use that; now it’s the other way around, so he tries to use that. That’s how football is. That’s how managers work.
“I don’t want to create headlines but I don’t remember that we played a game in the last two or three years where I thought before the game, ‘Thank God it’s him as a manager’ and not somebody else. It’s just tough against all of them, for really different reasons.
“It’s tough against a Jose Mourinho team but the good news is: we don’t play. We send out two teams full of experience and desire to change or continue their own situation. At the end, we have to make sure that works out.
“I don’t think anybody wants to play against us at the moment. Are Tottenham my preferred opponent for the weekend? Probably not. But it’s the opponent and we are the opponent of Tottenham, so let’s try the best.”
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