Spurs easily defeated the Reds at Wembley, as Dejan Lovren was pulled in the 31st minute after a pair of mistakes
Liverpool‘s heavy 4-1 defeat at Tottenham in October 2017 was the turning point for the club under Jurgen Klopp, claims Jamie Redknapp.
Dejan Lovren made two major errors in the match at Wembley, which prompted Klopp to substitute the defender after just 31 minutes.
“That defeat left Tottenham sitting third in the table, and Liverpool ninth. Looking back, we can see how significant that result was for Klopp,” Redknapp said in the Daily Mail.
“It was comedic defending, their leakiest start to a campaign since 1964, and the German said afterwards: ‘It’s not as if Tottenham needed to be genius to get through us.’
“Then we saw how he decided to react.”
Redknapp reckons that Klopp was convinced that he needed to spend big to rebuild his defence following that match, leading to a fateful set of moves for the Reds.
In January 2018 Liverpool sold Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona for a fee reportedly worth €160 million (£136m/$178m). They used that windfall to land Virgil van Dijk from Southampton that same month, then they signed Alisson from Roma in the summer.
Those moves quickly reshaped the Reds defence, with Klopp leading his team to back-to-back Champions League finals. Liverpool fell to Real Madrid in 2018 after a pair of howlers from then-goalkeeper Loris Karius, before they defeated Tottenham in 2019 with Alissson in goal.
Klopp sees his side visit Tottenham on Saturday, with a massive gulf having opened up between the two sides.
Liverpool are atop the Premier League table with a commanding 13-point advantage, sitting 28 points above seventh-place Spurs with a game in hand.
Redknapp expects Spurs manager Jose Mourinho to change up his approach with star striker Harry Kane on the sidelines with a torn hamstring.
“The Portuguese has gone very direct since taking over,” the former Liverpool and Tottenham midfielder said. “This is a team that tries to find its centre forward as quickly as possible. Yet they may have to find a different way to threaten Liverpool with no out-and-out No 9.
“They may have to play more of a possession-based game, keep it on the floor in midfield rather than look for those direct balls into the front man.
“Son Heung-min can do a job there but he offers a different skillset to Kane.”
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