Boss on Wembley record, Spurs form and stopping Harry Kane

Liverpool return to Premier League duties this weekend with a trip to the national stadium and a contest against an in-form side holding the same ambitions to compete at the top end of the division.

At his press conference to preview the game, Klopp discussed his previous matches at the venue, the challenge of facing Spurs and the task of keeping their talisman, Harry Kane, at bay.

Read on for his responses…

On his track record at Wembley…

I never played against Tottenham at Wembley, so maybe that’s another thing. I can say that the performance was always really good. In the Champions League final [with Borussia Dortmund against Bayern Munich] the performance was really good, everybody who saw it knows that. The Capital One Cup final against City was unlucky in the penalty shootout at the end, that’s how things can happen. But we don’t feel bad when we see Wembley, it’s a good place and a wonderful stadium. And we never played against Tottenham there, so it’s nothing we are thinking about. We only think about the game against Tottenham and not where we play.

On previous matches against Spurs…

It’s a nice football game, every supporter can look forward to it. Both teams don’t hesitate with any effort, any investment and stuff like this. Both teams are always spot-on and want to do their best. So far, Tottenham did a little bit better than we did result-wise, but I’m sure they can play better than they played so far. We can still play better than we played so far, so I think that’s really an interesting game. So far we did well, but that’s all, nothing else. It has been fantastic development [by Spurs] since I’ve been in England; they were already good when I came in and Pochettino was already a year there. You could already see what they can achieve in the future.

So far, apart from [Kyle] Walker this year, nobody left the club of the decisive players – that’s a big, big job that they did so far. That will be a big challenge for them in the next few years because Harry is not only one of the best strikers in Europe, he’s one of the best strikers in the world, 100 per cent. Everybody knows that. And Dele Alli as well, and [Christian] Eriksen as well, not strikers but midfielders. They are in a really good moment as a club and we are the challenger when we go there, that’s how it is. But they know it will not be an easy game, so good, let’s play and let’s see what happens. I’m really looking forward to this game because you don’t have a lot of these games where both teams are going for everything. It’s always like that against City, and against Tottenham it is like this.

On the difference between trying to stop Kane this week and Romelu Lukaku last week…

I don’t have to judge these two, they are both fantastic strikers. The only little difference is that Harry is much more a part of the game when he’s not scoring, that’s it, but I’m pretty sure that Lukaku can make these steps still. He is pretty much not to defend, if you give him the balls he is not to defend. We avoided the balls to Lukaku, I would say, and that must be a key against Harry as well. That’s it. But if you are too concentrated on one player then Dele Alli is everywhere, in the box and around the box, Eriksen shoots from everywhere or plays the decisive passes, or they have a wonderfully skilled boy with [Harry] Winks, obviously on a very good way.

So it’s a good team, you cannot be concentrated only on one player. There are a few nice examples. [Ben] Davies is, for me, a perfect example, especially because [Danny] Rose was there and nobody thought Davies would play that much. At the beginning, as I saw it, he struggled in one or two moments but they stayed cool with him and he made big steps, he is a fantastic player. He was probably before, I didn’t know him that well before, but since he’s there he has made big steps. If you stay cool and stay full of trust and faith with players you are convinced about, time can bring big, big things and that’s one example.