Jürgen Klopp press conference: Tottenham clash, Szoboszlai impact and more

Round-upJürgen Klopp press conference: Tottenham clash, Szoboszlai impact and more

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By Joe Urquhart and James Carroll

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Jürgen Klopp previewed Liverpool's Premier League visit to Tottenham Hotspur during a press conference on Friday morning.

The Reds boss met reporters at the AXA Training Centre to take questions in a media briefing ahead of his team's trip to the capital on Saturday.

Both sides enter the fixture unbeaten in the Premier League this season, with kick-off at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium set for 5.30pm BST.

Read a summary of Klopp's preview of the game below…

Trent Alexander-Arnold of Liverpool FC

NewsLFC fitness update: Alexander-Arnold, Bajcetic, Thiago and BradleyJürgen Klopp is hopeful Trent Alexander-Arnold will be available for Liverpool's trip to Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League.

On whether he is surprised at how quickly his team have found form...

Yes, because I don't have timeframes for this kind of thing, or a schedule when I think it should be, but the Premier League is [the] Premier League. We had a good pre-season, a long pre-season, with a lot of players together, that was the main reason that we could work for a long time together. That helped definitely and getting results in moments when maybe recently, or in previous years, things would have gone the other way helped as well to grow together. Individually the quality of the boys is really good, the potential is outstanding, attitude good, so it means a good chance for quality. The group is open for new things.

We called it a new start, this is year one for this team, I know these are only words but we live it. We gave ourselves a chance to create a basis and use it, and not constantly comparing with other teams, even when we were involved in that from recent years when we won things or not. That's not about that. You never win things because you won it before, if at all you win it's because you are now good enough and we don't know how good we are, we don't know how stable it all is, but we all see as well that there are good moments in the games and that's what we want to increase.

On whether he has been as impressed as supporters by Dominik Szoboszlai since his arrival...

I am impressed as well. It's clear. I didn't know him, I knew him as a footballer, but not as a person before. The boy is impressive, is really smart, is really nice. A really good lad. Is close with everybody. You have these people who come into the room and click with everybody, he has that, charisma, [or] however you want to call it. He was in the team in an instant, that's clear, and was so happy to come here, [it] was really nice to see. [It] was really nice to see how much it meant to him and that's it.

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If that's the mood you are in yourself then obviously it's a good situation to play your best football. That's what he did pretty much from the beginning, he's a natural fit boy, endurance talent, learnt that really quick, and all the rest we learn step by step about each other. He never played the position he's playing for us now in that way, he even played for us [in a] double-six, which he definitely never played, but we learned together where it can go. That's it. It's like it is with the other boys, but it's a real joy to work with [him]. That's it.

On whether the Tottenham game can be a marker for his team, especially with aims of Champions League football...

Tottenham is not in European football at all... Chelsea is not in European football... so two heavyweights [are] not in European football, and having the whole week to train when others travel, and stuff like this, not only us, all the others, so it's a massive advantage, so getting into the Champions League will be a massive and a difficult task this year because of well-rested big animals. I don't know [if it will be a marker] but the performance is as important. It's as important to understand where we are. Yes, would I take each performance if it means three points to us, yeah, but it wouldn't give me an indication to where we are in our development.

I have to see the game and then I know what I can make of it. I don't know it beforehand. We all know there will be dips and stuff like this. There will be difficult moments and that's what I say. I don't know how stable we are, we are not stable, our start in a game is not great. It's not great. We show we can adapt, we show we learn in the game, we show we use half-time pretty well, but it's not that our meeting before the game is useless and then [at] half-time finally we can find the right words. It's not like that.

I think we are better prepared than we look sometimes. There's a lot of work to do and it is a long, long road and Tottenham is a tough game, it's a tough week with Tottenham away then Union at home and Brighton away. It's a tough week. So, if we want, these are all tests; clear. But it's better to go in these kind of games and these kind of tests with good results in your bag than with bad results in your bag because it just feels better. Now let's see what we can make.

On Wataru Endo's performance against Leicester City...

It was not a surprise because that is how he is training. I have said before, he is already there in training. I was not too happy with the way I described the situation with his politeness, but if you are not native it makes life really difficult sometimes even when you all think I am here eight years and should maybe speak better English. There are some people who have a personality of getting into something and taking everything. Then you have the others who come in, look left and right and think, 'Let's have a look first' and that says nothing about this person, it is just their character - but both can succeed, it is just different timescales.

Now we have two new players with Dom and Macca who just step in and 'Hello, here we are!' A bit later Ryan, obviously, who is doing pretty well as well. Then you have a fourth one and people say, 'I'm not really sure' but if we don't give people time anymore then what kind of world is that? I was not surprised because that's how he trains. It looks really good, super-promising, and that's exactly what we wanted.

He is a top, top guy, so I am really happy for him he could show the outside world a first glimpse of his quality. It is really nice. With all the attention, understandable attention, on Dominik's goal, the pass was as good because I didn't see any space between the two players. Dom told me later, 'I hoped he would see me…' Yes, he saw you, but then he still has to think if there is enough space for the ball between the two players. It was a top, top pass, the passes we missed in the past, that's the truth as well. He played so many forward balls and that was really good. He is in a good way and I was really happy for him to show in the second half this sign.

On whether attack will be the best form of defence at Spurs...

It is that simple, it is just not that simple to execute! That's true. Yes, both teams will play football. That's good news but it's a little bit also new news because that's a different approach. Tottenham, in recent years, it was always that you played against the best counter-attacking team in the world. It was unbelievable what they set up there. If you lost a ball wherever, the next ball would find Kane and Kane will find Son and they will end up in a one-on-one with the goalie and it was pretty much not to defend. Now it is much more possession-based, it is much more based on own ideas, creative ideas and stuff like this. In the analysis we saw they have real quality but they will have found things where we are not perfect and we have found things where they were not perfect.

They do the analysis as well and had a full week to work on all these things. So, since they played last time, I am not sure how many sessions they had, they can create new routines for set-pieces and stuff like this, can change the whole way they defend in one week, they can change the whole way they attack in one week and that is a massive advantage. I know he is a top, top, top coach and he enjoys what he is doing, so they will spend some time with creating difficulties for us. We recovered from the game and we have a very important session today and then we hope we are prepared as good as well and then we will see.

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