Battle-hardened Liverpool keep fighting to preserve top-four hopes

Liverpool had won in Glasgow and Amsterdam. They had triumphed in Leicester, too, but that was neutral territory for the Community Shield. But they had been to Fulham and Manchester United, to Everton and Arsenal and Nottingham Forest and taken just two points from those five fixtures. And so it was 11 days short of six months since they had tasted victory away from home in England, when the sensation was so rare that Jurgen Klopp lost himself in the moment, one he had not experienced since May.

“It was not my plan, I did not want to do it,” he said, reflecting on the trademark fist pump celebration, performed for the first time this season in a corner of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. “I got carried away.”

Tottenham were Klopp’s first opponents, with a 2015 stalemate that was notable for frenetic running, and his victims when he claimed his greatest prize, the Champions League in 2019. He has often beaten Tottenham and yet his lone defeat lingers longer in the memory than most of those wins. On Friday, he reminisced about the 4-1 loss in 2017, which seemed to crystallise the case for signing Virgil van Dijk, and when he substituted Dejan Lovren after half an hour. He recalled the Croatian knocking on his office door the subsequent day.

Fast forward five years and Klopp had centre backs on his mind again but for different reasons. Ibrahima Konate made a belated first league start of the season. “Outstanding,” said Klopp after the Frenchman showed his resolve in a rearguard action. “It is not like we always have to play like this but we have to show the attitude and the commitment to defending,” he reflected. Joe Gomez has shown a fragility at times this season. Konate displayed a blend of fearlessness and physique.

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That 4-1 at Wembley was the setback that wasn’t for Liverpool, a traumatic occasion at the time with no long-term cost. A second defeat to Spurs might have had more seismic consequences; Liverpool would have been left 13 points behind them, a seemingly insurmountable gap. Instead, it has been trimmed to seven. Antonio Conte took the chance to portray Tottenham as underdogs again. Klopp nevertheless noted: “Last year we nearly won all four competitions but drew twice with Tottenham.”

Indeed, they shared the points in all six league meetings with their fellow top-four finishers. They had two types of consistency then, drawing with the best and usually beating the rest. This season, Klopp has bemoaned a certain inconsistency and, despite losing at Anfield to Leeds, arguably the nadirs have come on the road: the start at Manchester United, the entire performance against Napoli, the loss to bottom club Nottingham Forest. Amid and after the setbacks, Liverpool have conjured three magnificent wins, against Manchester City, Napoli and Tottenham, two in their last two games. Andy Robertson spoke of “too many below-par performances this season”. Liverpool have produced three that were way above the new par.

As they often did when have won under Klopp, they made him look prophetic. The most-used word in his vocabulary has become “fight”; Liverpool, he has argued, have had to fight their way through a slump. Amid a second-half bombardment at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Klopp said, “we just kept fighting. If you want to win an away game, this is a completely normal way to do it.” But away wins have not been the norm for him of late.

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There was a self-serving element to Conte’s comments when he named Alisson man of the match, but Liverpool showed their substance and their stature. They were a side with a spine, which they tend to be when Fabinho plays well, but are less frequently when he does not, and the Brazilian was the best of their midfield trio.

After Harry Kane halved the deficit, the final 20 minutes amounted to a triumph of willpower, with legs tiring, substitutes struggling to exert an impact but Liverpool’s defensive unit holding on. “What we have to show is we are not punched too hard when we concede a goal,” said Klopp. They weathered the blows; it was a reminder that this is tall team, an experienced side and a battle-hardened group; that all rendered their decline more surprising, but the glimpses of their old selves were reassuring reminders that this team’s great efforts are not all confined to the past.

Klopp described their goals as “world class”, though one stemmed from an Eric Dier mistake but clinical as Mohamed Salah was, this was not a day for frills and flourishes. Rewind to Friday and Klopp said: “You cannot say ‘forget the defensive stuff’ and have nutmegs here and backheels there.” When his attackers ran Tottenham ragged, it was by running: Darwin Nunez at everyone and everything, Salah gliding remorselessly into space and finishing nervelessly.

His brace took his tally to nine goals in eight games, to 170 Liverpool goals; he is now only two behind Kenny Dalglish, arguably the club’s greatest player. “Kenny Dalglish, Robbie Fowler, they probably had times when they could not score,” Klopp said. “Mo will not stop. When everyone looks back on his career everyone will remember one of the best strikers they ever saw because his numbers will be absolutely insane.”

Their season has felt insane, too, and not when deployed by Klopp, as a compliment. But as a break beckons, it is with Liverpool still able to envisage a top-four finish. One win over Tottenham earned them a Champions League. Another preserved their hopes of playing in it next season.