Press conferenceJürgen Klopp on Tottenham, challenges, Luis Diaz’s impact and more

The Reds welcome top-four-chasing Spurs to Anfield in the Premier League for a Saturday night showdown.

The boss sat down in front of journalists at the AXA Training Centre to look ahead to the game – read on for a summary of what he had to say...

On the tough opposition Tottenham provide Liverpool this weekend...

[It's a] massive, massive test, definitely. I think if I would watch from outside I would say, 'OK, that will be difficult, hey, for Liverpool?' I don't even have to look from the outside, because inside I know, yes, that it will be difficult. All teams fight for everything, but, obviously, Tottenham has massive quality. Especially away from home, they are not too bothered about having the ball all the time, stuff like this. They defend compact, and these kinds of things, and then obviously [they have] some of the best counter-attacking players in the world. That's definitely the truth as well. So, we need to find solutions for that. That’s what we try, and then give it a go. So, anyway, that it’s difficult, we know since we started long, long ago and now this one is difficult as well, but I'm still looking forward to it.

On whether this game is the biggest test left for his team in the Premier League this season...

The quality of the opponent is the main [one]. I actually think the challenge we faced in the last few weeks, playing at Newcastle was not an easy task, especially three days after we played Villarreal – between two Villarreal games – it was really not easy. This time we have a day longer to prepare, which feels like a week holiday, to be honest. It's unbelievable, it gives us the chance to prepare properly and not in a rush, but it's only one time the case because then we play already Aston Villa on Tuesday night, so that's clear.

The main challenge is the quality of the opponent. I mean, you think about how Tottenham wins the games, of course they have a brilliant football team, but the way they set it up with the five and then offensively and defensively with the four and one, or with the two and three. Up front, [they have] speed like crazy – Harry Kane, what a player, and obviously fits in that idea extremely well. There’s a blind understanding between them and these kinds of things, so I’d say it’s probably the biggest challenge for protection we face for a long time. You have to win a football game, you have to create, you have to be high up the pitch, that's where you score the goals. The moment you lose it, you should be immediately around all of them immediately, and that's difficult, so we have to – that’s just football. We have to find a way to keep them calm as often as possible because it will not be possible all the time.

On how difficult it is to keep emotions in check being so close to three more trophies...

In the end, it’s all emotions and it's all fine. Even when we are a lot together, we still are a lot alone with the things upstairs. But it can lead to the first half against Villarreal, it can lead to the second half against Villarreal, so what is it? So, we were in a similar situations, never before in the same situation. That's why it makes it so easy for us, at least as I understand it, for us to prepare, or be prepared for it, because we never changed. We just prepare the next game. So, with a lot of good experiences and results in our bag. That’s it. This time it’s Tottenham. That's it. So, we don’t think too much, but it’s more a feeling that we know that we get closer [to] the end of May. What is it today? The sixth, or so? So, in 22 days, 23 days, we know everything. Between now and then, [it’s] a lot of games, and we cannot play them all together, but we can play one after the other and that's what we do. Now it's Tottenham. Yes, the feeling is good, but we still are able to play like the first half against Villarreal. We felt brilliant before the game, and played really bad. So, let’s make sure that we play good.

On the challenge for coaches in this period of the season...

It's actually like it always was, just for a longer period in the season. So usually in this moment in time, we play already like Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, because we are not in that final or that final. It means we never can really train, we spoke about it quite frequently here. Nobody gives us time to train, we recover, have a minus-one session and go from there. Today is the only real session. Analyse never changes – that's exactly the same amount of games we watch or minutes we invest in that. It keeps you obviously busy but we cannot prepare the next game less good just because we have a lot of games – that will never happen. That’s why it’s busy, clear. But it’s the best reason to be busy I can imagine, to be honest. It’s the things we love to do. It’s really more underneath that you really don't feel the intensity that much. But it’s the best reason to be busy. What never will drop is the preparation for the game. Not on the training pitch, we get used to it. But in the meetings, the boys need all the necessary information – not too much but the necessary, so that's what we try.

On the impact Luis Diaz's arrival had on the squad...

An unbelievable impact, clear. There’s enough space in each squad in the world for a world-class player – that’s what Luis is, that's why we were so desperate to get him and that's why we were so happy that we could get him. It makes all the difference. If you go through our games in the Champions League when we played Porto, he was still there, so it's a really strange situation. Now he goes with us to the final, which is absolutely outstanding. You could see what it means to him. Yes, involving an outstanding player is good for each squad and was good for us, definitely – not only because we had the African Cup when the boys were not here, but because of that as well. Thank God we made that decision because it helped everywhere. It’s so much up to him more than it was to other players maybe because he communicates with everybody without really speaking the language. OK, we have the Spanish faction, that's no problem, they are really close and they helped him so much – Thiago, Fab, Ali, Bobby, all these kind of guys, Adrian is great in these aspects. But he’s really close with Curtis, he's really close with Harvey – I have no idea how they talk, to be honest. On an emotional basis, they are like this [locks fingers] and they were after a week and it’s really strange. But it's up to him.

On having managed Japanese stars Shinji Kagawa and Takumi Minamino…

First and foremost, congratulations, both are fantastic representatives of Japan. With Shinji for me in Dortmund and Taki here, fantastic boys, fantastic footballers. It’s one of the hardest things I have to do at the moment – Taki's not involved, it's really hard. Because the last thing he deserves is not being involved. He trains incredible. Since Taki came here, he improved a lot. I like a lot the steps he made and all these kind of things. How he deals with the setbacks is insane. It's really hard but he never gives up, he always stays positive and he always goes for everything. He's a big part of the story of this team this year and last year. You should be really proud of them.