Jürgen Klopp's verdict on Reds' defeat at Tottenham

The Reds found themselves two goals behind inside the opening 12 minutes as Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son struck early for the hosts, but Mohamed Salah reduced the arrears when he turned Jordan Henderson’s through ball beyond Hugo Lloris.

However, Dele Alli struck in first-half stoppage-time and Kane grabbed a second shortly after the re-start to condemn the visitors to defeat in the capital.

Afterwards, Klopp addressed the media in his post-match press conference at the national stadium. Read on for a full summary of what he had to say.

On the number of goals Liverpool have conceded so far this season…

It’s all our responsibility, what you saw today. It’s not a nice statistic. Today you saw two teams with a lot of potential; I don’t use this to say that we were good or whatever, because we weren’t, it’s only that everybody could see the potential, even of my side. But in all the decisive moments we were not there. It’s difficult to talk about because I don’t want to create headlines, which don’t help us, but today it was just poor defending in all parts and the decisive parts it was like this.

The first goal, it’s unbelievably easy to defend; when Harry has the ball not anymore, but before, easiest. It’s a close, small space, we only have to clear the ball – we don’t do it. The second goal, all the analysis, all we knew before the game, it was clear Tottenham would play in situations like this. When you then saw the line-up, it was 100 per cent clear we had to protect all our offensive things. We make a cross, not a bad cross, but we overlap in a situation when the ball is already away. We miss the moment. It was not possible for counter-pressing I think. We miss the moment. Usually, we all know Dejan would make a header in this situation. He missed the ball. And on the other side, Son, because he’s in a better position and he’s very quick, is not to stop anymore so an easy goal. Third goal, another present, we have the ball and lose it, make then a free-kick off it, make a foul. But then it’s a free-kick nowhere, it was nothing. We make the header in the middle of the park and have nobody for the second ball.

Everything that happened today was so obvious. It was bad in these moments. The fourth one just happened like it was today. Even then we had chances – that’s just a result of the potential of the team. But you cannot get results with a performance like today against a team like Tottenham, they were completely spot-on and obviously we weren’t. And that’s my responsibility.

On the attitude of his players…

Did the boys want it? Yes. I would say 100 per cent yes, you could see it. Even when we were 4-1 down, we had moments. We improved in a few situations in the game. For Tottenham, it was quite intense as well, they were not that clear anymore in a lot of situations. But actually, to be honest, I don’t want to say anything positive about us today. But it’s not attitude. It’s not that the boys thought ‘seven in Maribor and now we will carry on like this without doing anything’. That’s not how the team is. I said it a few times today, whatever you say about us in a negative way today, you are right. We were wrong.

On whether Dejan Lovren’s first-half substitution was a tactical decision…

Yes, but I really don’t want to blame players. Dejan, to be honest, was not worse than Joel. We had to change something, we tried to make sure that we are a little bit more stabilised; it was less about the centre-half position with Joe there, it was more that we needed more protection in the half-space. In this case, with Emre which actually didn’t work too well, but that was the idea behind it.

On whether the team’s defensive qualities are strong enough to challenge for the top four…

Yes, but I really don’t have to talk about top four today. We are ninth and we have the worst statistics since 1964 – I can’t believe. We are where we are, so we deserve that. If Tottenham needed to be genius to come through then we don’t have to talk. But if you make these easy mistakes… yes, of course, the last line is involved, but then also centre mid is involved.

Quality is obviously a mix of potential, attitude, mentality and all that stuff and we don’t show it consistently enough, that’s the truth. I will never give up working on that. Sometimes the most obvious mistakes are the easiest mistakes to fix, but it is obviously not the moment to say, ‘Yes, we will fix it’ – we have to prove we will fix it. It was too easy for Tottenham today, much too easy. After 2-1, everybody saw, this game could change, but unfortunately we were the other team so it was not possible today. Our fault.

On how Liverpool can improve defensively…

We have to prove that we are better defenders than we showed today, than we showed in another game. Part of the statistic is that we have three unbelievably big scoresheets with Watford, City and today – that alone is 12 goals we’ve conceded, that’s crazy. You don’t have to talk about quality; if they didn’t have quality, they would not be involved in the squad of Liverpool, 100 per cent.

Sometimes things that you talk a lot about – and we talked about from the first matchday pretty much – they [still] happen then but the only way to fix it is to stay strong and work on it. These goals today, I said it, the first goal would not happen if I am on the pitch. It would not happen. [Even] if I am in trainers. Harry can’t get the ball because it was an open ball. We were there, we had more players than Tottenham, but they came through. Was it perfect play of Tottenham? No. Was it a little bit lucky? Yes. Do we need be prepared for a situation like this? Yes – and we are usually. Everything is clear, each job is clear, but we didn’t do it. Now I cannot fix it here but we will fix it.

On whether Joe Gomez might get more opportunities at centre-back…

We have a pretty much normal week with no game in midweek, which means we have a lot of time to train and that’s what we will do. It’s an open race if you want – who shows to me that he wants to play. I don’t like situations like this, but it is like this – who shows me he is ready to show a reaction. We have to show a reaction. We cannot only say, ‘OK, now it is Anfield and now it is Huddersfield’ or whatever. We have no right for doing that – we have to really to show a reaction. That’s the thing we have to do and I don’t give any position to any player in this moment. I don’t think that makes sense.

On whether he’d spoken to Lovren after the game…

No, not so far. As I said, I could have taken another one [off] and it would not have been the biggest difference – we still conceded two more goals after Dejan left the pitch. Obviously it was not the biggest influence, that’s how it is. I think he feels not good, that’s OK – nobody should feel good in the moment who is part of the squad.