Jurgen Klopp says he thought his television was broken while watching Tottenham’s 6-1 defeat at Newcastle last week.
Spurs were torn apart at St James’ Park as the Magpies scored five goals in the opening 21 minutes to further deepen the north London side’s woes. Cristian Stellini has since departed and been replaced as interim manager by Ryan Mason, who oversaw a 2-2 draw with Manchester United on Thursday.
Klopp’s Liverpool host Tottenham on Sunday at Anfield but the Reds manager says he expects a ‘strong’ visiting side to show up despite their many woes on and off the pitch.
“The Newcastle v Tottenham game I came home, switched the TV on and it was 1-0,” Klopp said.
“I had something else to do and wanted to watch the game a bit later, and when I came back in it was 5-0. I honestly thought there was something wrong with the screen, somebody had made a joke or something. Newcastle obviously is in a very good moment so these kind of things can happen.
“I never could think in my life like that [if Spurs are scarred by their Anfield record]. To find for yourself the right attitude in the game you have [to] think the opponent is really strong. And they are strong. A very famous German coach once said: ‘If you always expect an easy game you will never have one, but if you always expect a super difficult game then from time to time you might have an easy one.’ But the other way doesn’t work.
Current Premier League table, top scorers & upcoming fixtures
“I have no clue what happened at Tottenham. I see Harry Kane, I see Son, I see Kulusevski, I see Perisic, Richarlison, Hojbjerg and so on and they all have played exceptional football during their careers. We had some problems in moments this season and maybe other teams thought: ‘Oh it’s a great moment to play Liverpool.’
“Maybe it was, I don’t know, but if I am in the other camp I would never have imagined that Liverpool would show up weak. I cannot think about Tottenham in any other way apart from I expect them to be really strong.”
Liverpool have a game in hand on Spurs but can usurp them still with a win on Sunday. The Anfield side have won five of the last six games between the two teams on Merseyside, though Tottenham did manage a draw in their last visit.
LISTEN NOW
On this edition of 90min’s Definitive European Power Rankings, part of the 90min podcast network, Sean Walsh and Jack Gallagher discuss the top 10 teams from across the continent after a busy week of football.
If you can’t see this embed, click here to listen to the podcast!
Credit: 90min.com
