Press conferenceJürgen Klopp on Tottenham, defending, Nunez and Fabinho

Having wrapped up the Champions League group stage by beating Napoli 2-0 in midweek, the Reds travel to Spurs for a 4.30pm GMT kick-off in the Premier League on Sunday.

Ahead of that contest, Klopp spoke to the media at the AXA Training Centre, where he assessed his team’s defensive form, the challenge posed by Antonio Conte’s side, and more.

Read a summary below…

On Darwin Nunez’s form and growing confidence…

Big steps and still space for improvement because the boy is an incredible package. You could see immediately he is a real threat in the finishing area, involved in a lot of things. That’s why you then realise, the few big chances he missed, imagine he would have scored from them as well. He is involved in pretty much everything. He is always an option to pass to, to cross the ball to, these kind of things. He came on [against Napoli] and didn’t play extremely long but was involved in both goals, which is good. So, big steps, absolutely.

On how big a moment this is in the season, heading to Spurs…

A big game for us, a massive game for us. Difficult as well. Spurs away. I didn’t count now the points distance between us and them but we cannot be picky with opponents and games and where we want to get points – we have to go for it, definitely. But it’s difficult, we all know Tottenham is a side that is well organised, defending on an extremely high level and counter-attacking is a massive thing now. The last two games when they had to chase the game, you saw the offensive power as well. I think Spurs is in a good moment. They had now two important games around the last minute, and especially the last one was a really big one for Tottenham. So we are prepared for a confident, strong opponent.

On Liverpool’s consistency…

We see what we are capable of doing in specific ways – really big games, good games, stuff like this. But then it’s a lot of games and we have to always figure a little bit who can play again, it was never like, ‘Same line-up again, come on, let’s go from here.’ I don’t think we had that chance a lot of times. If you are not consistent then there is always a reason for it and very often it’s a reason with availability: who can you play, how often can they play, all these kinds of things. That’s one, not the only, but one of the reasons why we don’t have consistency.

The problem is, to explain wins is really easy. Everybody is in a great mood and smiling, good shape. Explaining when you lose is much more difficult because each word is really important. I don’t have five million different words for it. If you want to get out of something you first have to get through it, and that’s where we are. It might take time but we don’t say now, ‘Tottenham is too early for us to really show up already.’ No, it’s not.

We go there and want to be at our best, 100 per cent. But sitting here now and being 1,000 per cent convinced, ‘Yes, we will’ – I can tell you, it never was before going to Tottenham that I thought, ‘Good moment to face Tottenham, let’s smash them.’ It was never the case, it’s a difficult place to go, a really good team, extremely well coached and a real fighting unit. There are no friendly games against them, Antonio is on his toes on the sideline, the players are in challenges and all these kinds of things. So it will be a tough one but that’s what we actually all want. It’s like a Champions League game in the Premier League, and that’s how we will approach it.

On the Reds’ form and systems being used…

Our problem, why we changed system and why we did all these kinds of things – one is the availability of players, the other thing is we were not as solid defensively as we used to be. We can always point the finger in the things you don’t do well and say, ‘OK , this was not good, we have to improve this and that.’ Or you give them a completely new textbook and that’s what we tried with changing the system. Now it’s not about how we did the last game, it’s like a new chapter, ‘OK, in this system we do it like this, this, this’, you don’t compare it with the last one. Positive start and to make sure to help the boys, because that’s actually my main job: to help the boys do what they do in the most confident way and manner.

That’s why we did that – because our problem in these moments was defending actually, as a team, as a unit. That’s why I said now in the last game, we defended Napoli extremely well. A football-playing side but we closed exactly the right gaps, everybody was involved, chasing from the back, our counter-press was really good, we had a high last line, that means we were high up in midfield so we really could be around these situations. Football things. That’s why it’s not the system that gave us the opportunity to defend better. No, we defended in a system better in which we didn’t defend that well five or six weeks ago, since we played it last time.

We have to defend on an incredibly high level. Now the big challenge is obviously even if we defend really well, we have to attack as well against Tottenham. Counter-attacks are a real threat, a real strength of them so you need to be well protected. It’s not that you can close in football one door, or sort one problem; it’s pretty likely that you open another problem in that moment, another gap in football. That’s why we are trying and trying. With all the things we know about football, in the end you have to play the game. The next game is Tottenham and I’m looking forward to it.

On the importance of keeping a clean sheet against Napoli...

This game didn’t look for a second like a dead rubber. It’s margins, it’s margins. We didn’t concede a goal in that game for, what was it, an armpit? So, look, that’s how it is. The difference between not conceding or conceding is sometimes an armpit. It’s not that I think we defended in the best possible way but it was a set-piece, and all the rest, considering how good Napoli are in this moment in time, how easy it looks in moments when they play. The analysis of Napoli was pure joy from a football point of view because everything they do works out in the moment, it’s crazy. The way they score goals, where they score the goals, the highest tempo and all these kind of things. The challenge was to deny that – and we did that. We did that in a really good way, so that’s good.

But it’s now not news to me that we can do that, we just have to do it again – and again and again and again. It’s a different game. Napoli are an offensively-orientated team and Tottenham, it is now not 100 per cent clear how they will get into this game. It’s a home game and in the last two games they had to chase it, it was an obvious change of approach. Before that, it was well organised, a bit deeper defending and going for counter-attacks. We have to expect pretty much both, but what will be sure is when we have the ball they will be really compact and will be really difficult to play against, that’s clear, with a 5-3-2 maybe. That is the challenge now. You cannot compare it [with Napoli].

Yes, it’s important that we did it, of course it was important. Again, the game didn’t look for a second like a dead rubber. Both teams really went for it, it was really intense and that’s what I liked about it because it could have been a boring 0-0, and even if it was 0-0 it was not boring.

On Fabinho’s performance against Napoli...

It’s good, it’s absolutely good. The game was a clear sign of Fabinho how we know him. It was a good game, he defended in all positions on a different level to the week before and so it was good. It felt good, it was for him very important to realise that’s possible as well. It was a good start in the right direction.

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