NewsJürgen Klopp press conference: Spurs challenge, Champions League qualification and more

The Reds welcome Ange Postecoglou's side to Anfield for their penultimate home fixture of the 2023-24 campaign.

Liverpool sit in third place having already secured Champions League football next season, while Spurs remain in fifth position with aims of breaking into the top four.

Ahead of the game, Klopp held a pre-match press conference at the AXA Training Centre on Friday, covering a range of subjects.

Read our round-up below…

On qualifying for the Champions League...

I take that [the congratulations], I felt exactly the same last night. I was really happy.

So, most importantly, you see just how it goes. We speak today about qualifying. After last season we speak today three games before the end of the season about qualifying for the Champions League. It is an achievement. Does it feel to everybody like that? Maybe not [but] to me it does. That's how the perspective can change during the season because for a while we obviously looked like we can go all the way. Or at least stay in the race for longer, which was definitely possible [but] for different reasons that didn't work out. I'm not sure now, probably third place in the league behind two teams who do really well, and they go all the way. That's how it looks right now. I know mathematically there's still a chance [of winning the title]... or if you expect me to say it's not over yet; it is not over yet, I know that, but it looks like [it].

The pressure is off now. That's done. That would be really cool if we could play really, really good football again. That would be absolutely nice because obviously we were very tense in the last few weeks. We had a super-intensive period as well, Thursday, Sunday, Thursday, Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday - [it] didn't work out for us now too well after a long, long season. But, how I said, going back to the start of the season nobody knew and everybody knew how important it would be to qualify for the Champions League again. It's what we did and it's super-important for the future of the club and I'm really happy about that.

On whether it's 'difficult' to know what to expect from Tottenham...

No, you expect a good footballing side. I understand 100 per cent, I watched the game last night and saw it was said they were not good enough. I thought they put Chelsea under pressure, Chelsea defended them well, pretty deep... scored the goals in the right moments, stuff like this. Chelsea did not bad, definitely not for the situation they are in especially, but if you don't defend Tottenham properly then they will still play through it. They made a few changes, obviously, [James] Maddison didn't start, [Rodrigo] Bentancur didn't start, so I'm not sure if they come back. I think that they have options to change, do they start with Son [Heung-min] up front or on the wing?

So, I understand that Ange doesn't think it's a great moment because of their own expectations, but you can always see a clear footballing idea and that's what they still kept. We will have to be prepared for that, we have to defend really compact, if you don't do that then they'll play through because the idea is really obvious and they work now together nearly a year. It is exactly the season now what they [wanted], it's similar to ours maybe, maybe they didn't think about becoming champion, but they for sure thought about qualifying for the Champions League, which is now not that easy anymore but that's it.

It's always a challenge [against Spurs]. I don't want to make it the biggest subject, but I can't forget the Tottenham game as well, it's just so strange. Only the other night for the first time since Tottenham, Simon Hooper was standing next to me for 90 minutes in a game I didn't enjoy in the first place against Everton. He was there and he was the ref that night [at Tottenham]. I tried to get it out of my head, but I couldn't. So, now we play Tottenham and that was obviously not their fault that night, they just played the game, but I would like to win that game for 500 reasons, that we lost there and the way we lost is one of them.

On picking the players up after recent frustrations...

That's a challenge. Always after the game, emotions settle step by step. Either the good ones - you are not flying anymore a few days later if you won a game 4-0 - and the other way round, you should not be down anymore if you lost the game or missed the target. But then, the reality check is always the next situation, the next situation, the next situation in training. Getting the confidence back, getting the flow back is, for all human beings, the biggest challenge in our lives. On the good days, we are all great. We had lots of days that were not that great.

The only difference with footballers is they constantly have a camera in their face while they are going through difficult spells. We will give it a try, to try again. It's tricky but you don't do it by putting your finger into it all the time and saying, 'That's not good enough... that's not good enough.' You just try to offer things where things can develop naturally again. That's what we tried this week so far and will do until the end, giving the boys the necessary information as well. In the end you only can enjoy football when you win and that means you have to make sure that we defend [against] them properly and then for the rest we have to build on that.

On how he thinks he will feel knowing Sunday is his penultimate Anfield game...

I don't know. So far, I didn't think about it. In between, there are obviously some things going around, happening around us in the moment. I have to sign a lot of things... nine years' time and everybody now wants a shirt! But it's fine. That's the work part of the farewell and then being around the team, doing what you do, dealing with the things and all this kind of thing, that's obviously the main part. Now, from time to time, I have these little goodbyes.

Yesterday it was with the [LFC] Foundation people and I realised it's different and emotional in these moments, definitely. I know it will be emotional on the last matchday. I don't think it will be emotional [against Spurs], but I don't know. We will see. I will sit in the bus on Sunday going to the game and I know I will be 100 per cent focused on the game and not on my situation. I think that might be difficult for the last match, but not for that. I will not go to Aston Villa, Birmingham, a week later, 'It's the last time here…' I am not like that. If I wanted it longer I could've had it longer. It's a decision of necessity because I think it is right and that's it. So, yes, different but not that different yet.