Press conferenceTottenham Hotspur 2-2 Liverpool: Jürgen Klopp's reaction

An action-packed Premier League affair at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium ended with the points being shared.

Harry Kane opened the scoring to put the hosts ahead, before Diogo Jota headed in a fine equaliser during the first half.

Andy Robertson put the Reds 2-1 in front in the 69th minute, but Son Heung-Min quickly levelled and Liverpool's left-back was then sent off with 13 minutes remaining.

Read on for a summary of Klopp's post-match press conference...

On the game and the key decisions...

So let's start with the result maybe. The result is fine, would've been different, I think, with different decisions from the ref. But with the decisions, how he did it, I'm fine with the result. It's a 2-2 at Tottenham – that's absolutely OK. It was a difficult game for us for plenty of reasons. One is that we had to change a lot and it's obviously then difficult to deal with the different challenges in a game like this. The challenge was today we play against Tottenham, who set up a 5-3-2 and when they won the ball deep in their own half, they just kicked it as far as possible and Kane and Son were on their bikes for it, so we struggled with these moments slightly. It costs you obviously, it gives you some struggles a little bit, so we had to reorganise our protection a little bit better in the second half. That we don't run always in a counter-attack, that it now makes no sense that Ibou Konate is involved in our offensive passing and Tyler Morton is the one who stands against Harry Kane – that's not really how it should be. So that's the football part. It was an intense game, Tottenham looked second half slightly fresher than us. Yeah, we were 2-1 up, they couldn't score the second as well. But, of course, the game would have been completely different with two key decisions in the first half.

So let's start with Robbo. We saw it now back and, yes, you can give a red card there. It's not the harshest ever but it's not the smartest as well. He knows that and he's a really good boy but he lost it a little bit, so this red card you can give. But this is the proof that the VAR was there today because before that we thought he might not be in his office, because the two other situations I think we all agree now that Harry Kane should have seen a red card and he didn't. And the penalty situation, Mr Tierney told me that he thought Diogo Jota stopped on purpose, he wanted to get hit. If you watch this situation back, that's a very exclusive view and it's really difficult to do these things that quick. It was a very quick decision of him – you could see that he saw it and was directly like this. I'm not sure if he was prepared for it or whatever but if you watch the situation, how can you react that quick? It's a clear penalty but he thought it's clearly not a penalty. Wow. That's obviously two wrong decisions of him, I would say, and one right – all three against us.

On Kane's tackle on Robertson in the first half...

Really you have to not ask me, you have to ask the VAR. That's a clear, absolutely 100 per cent red card. Very often you cannot see clearly or whatever but in this situation, if Andy Robertson's foot is on the ground, his leg is broken – I think we all agree on that. But luckily for both, he was in the air. It's still a red card but the ref saw it differently.

On whether it’s difficult to prepare for games with the current situation…

Hendo has a cold. He's the only one with proper symptoms but he has only a cold and we had to send him home. It is not easy. As we always were, we were in contact with the Premier League, we tell them about our cases and the stuff that happens. In the first instance we had three cases and then two days later Thiago was positive. The Premier League tells us these are pretty much the best numbers in the league; I saw Arsenal and Chelsea play and they have, for me, pretty much their first line-ups on the pitch, but for us it's not exactly the same. There was no chance with four yesterday to cancel the game – and we had no intention to do that – but then today Hendo on top of that for different reasons.

Yes, it's tough, absolutely tough. You play against Tottenham and you saw they looked fresher in the second half than in the first half, so this is an intense period and we have to make sure we all have the same chances, the same situation pretty much. It’s difficult in that moment, I see that, but apart from that I don't know which team I can line up because I always wait in the morning for the test results, we had absolutely no idea about the Tottenham team. Usually you prepare for a game and you have an idea who played last week and stuff like this, but we had absolutely no idea – and we saw the line-up and apart from Hojbjerg, it was pretty much the first line-up and they looked already fresh. We were just better in the first half, or we were more dominant – I'm not sure of the numbers, but 70/30 per cent possession at Tottenham is nearly ridiculous, to be honest. There was no open game, it was just counter-attacking, so that's all tough. So, yes, the situation is not easy but we play football as long as people tell us to.

On whether a break for the Premier League would be beneficial due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases…

I don't know. If someone tells me that's the solution, I'm in, 100 per cent. Really, I'm in. For us, in the moment we have no cases in the staff – and the staff got the booster five or six weeks ago. So, that looks like it is because of [the booster]. Most of the players got the booster – if they could get it – after the Aston Villa game, so five or six days later they still got corona. Two of them had the booster already, but two of them couldn't get it because they got a different injection before – not a vaccination, but for something else and so they couldn't get the booster. If everybody gets boosted then we go two weeks at home and that's really the solution and then we don't have cases, then fine – let's go home and wait for that, absolutely. But if we just stop it and don't do anything in that department, then I don't see the benefit of it, really.