Klopp Talk: “We Are Ready for a Fight”

Two losses and three draws would represent a bad month for any Premier League side, never mind the defending league champions who won 196 points over the last two seasons. For Liverpool, though, it’s the reality.

Now, after a better performance—but one that still ended in defeat—against Manchester United in the FA Cup, Jürgen Klopp’s Reds travel to London to face a Tottenham side looking to push past them in the table.

“Everybody is wanting for me to say that was the turning point,” Klopp noted. “I want it to be the turning point as well, but the turning point of a result would have been nice as well—to play well and then you get a result.

“There was some good stuff but we conceded three goals and that’s not what we want. The general situation is a challenge and I’m fine with it. If something is going wrong you work on it and that’s what we are doing.”

Liverpool’s performance against United was better, but it came days after a 1-0 defeat to Burnley in the league, and if Liverpool’s performance drops again against Spurs they could find themselves in seventh place.

Currently fifth, opponents Tottenham are just a point back in sixth and have a game in hand to make up while Everton are two points back and will have two games in hand when the next two days’ games are played.

It’s along way from last year, when Liverpool ran away with the league, but these Reds are still defending champions—a group that won 196 points in two seasons. Now they need to get back to playing like that side.

“We are in this moment and now the next game is Tottenham,” Klopp added. “If I say, yes, [United] was the turning point and then against Tottenham we don’t play like that? So we always are trying to improve.

“We will stay on track, we will be really annoying and we will fight hard, we will try to do the positive things and be critical with the not-so-positive things. We will take the situation and make sure we are ready for a fight.”