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Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp believes his counterpart José Mourinho has turned Tottenham into a “results machine” before the pair meet in a top-of-the-table clash at Anfield.
Two years after the day Liverpool’s loss to Manchester United on the pitch led to the removal of the two-time Champions League-winning manager, the Portuguese will be back on the touchline.
However, he comes in with a team in much better shape than in 2018, with Spurs in first place on goal difference from the defending champions.
Klopp said Mourinho could never be ruled out, even if many did after the way his tenure at Old Trafford ended.
“It doesn’t surprise me because that’s the world we live in,” said the Liverpool manager.
“You are probably very successful until yesterday and if you don’t show it today, people will come for you. This is how it is.
“I don’t think he was surprised, but he showed comeback skills, if it was a comeback, I don’t know. Very impressive.
“Very impressive what he did now at Tottenham. The way they play is really good. It turned them into a results machine.
“They got results and good performances and if they are not in their best shape, they still win and defend collectively.”
Mourinho dismissed Liverpool’s current injury crisis as nothing out of the ordinary despite having nine players currently out of play, four of them – Virgil Van Dijk, Joe Gomez, Thiago Alcantara and Diogo Jota – all out for at least two months – considered first choice.
Klopp’s troubles did not improve over the weekend as, after Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain returned to the bench for the first time this season, he lost Jota and Kostas Tsimikas to knee injuries until two months before the draw with Fulham.
Center-back Joel Matip remains in doubt for Wednesday, with physical therapists working “almost 24 hours” on a back spasm that forced him to go to Craven Cottage.
Keita lacks rhythm, Klopp admits
None of Klopp’s walking wounded is likely to return, with Naby Keita again struggling with one of his drawbacks, which has severely hampered his Anfield career since he arrived in the summer of 2018.
“Naby has no rhythm, that’s the truth, but because of different things since we started the season again and that obviously doesn’t help performance,” Klopp said of his injury-plagued midfielder.
“Then you play a game and we only have two days between games and then you have to make a decision: are you ready?
“But whatever you do in the rehab process, you can’t replace proper soccer training, and we don’t have a lot of soccer training because of the number of games we have. That makes it difficult.
That was the case in Midtjylland; Everyone who saw Naby Keita play at his best knows that it was obviously not his best moment: normal and explainable with the lack of rhythm, but it’s still obvious.
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“So now we had to take a little step back with him. It’s not too serious, that’s why he’s training again, but we’ll see.
“Nobody doubts the qualities of Naby. But when you’re injured, you should be a bit lucky that you don’t get injured again due to intensity.
“He wasn’t that lucky, so we tried to be as careful as possible.”
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