Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp believes all the Premier League’s title hopefuls have problems to overcome, apart from leaders Manchester City.
The Reds ended a run of three league matches without a win with a 3-0 victory over Huddersfield Town on Saturday, although they remain 12 points behind Pep Guardiola’s side at the top of the table.
City’s exceptional form has seen them build a five-point lead over nearest challengers Manchester United, who kept up the pressure on their rivals with a 1-0 win over third-place Tottenham at Old Trafford.
Spurs have now lost two games in a row in all competitions, both of which were missed by the injured Harry Kane, just a week after hammering Liverpool 4-1 to underline their own title credentials.
Klopp believes the sudden dip in form of Mauricio Pochettino’s side proves how difficult it is for the chasing pack to keep up their pursuit of City.
“We haven’t had too much luck so far, that’s the truth,” he said. “But you cannot ask for luck. You cannot say: ‘Where’s the luck?’. You have to work until the luck happens.
“I’m not sure if Pochettino has spoken about similar things. But Harry Kane not involved, losing two in a row: things like this, that’s how it can happen.
“Two weeks ago, it wasn’t a Harry Kane team and now it is a Harry Kane team. We all have problems – apart from City obviously at the moment.”
Mohamed Salah missed a penalty as Liverpool laboured in the first half against Huddersfield before Daniel Sturridge capitalised on an error from Tommy Smith to ease the tension around Anfield.
Klopp was delighted with his side’s response after their dreadful performance at Spurs and the difficulty of finding the breakthrough in the first 45 minutes.
“It was clear after the really harsh criticism after the last game that you can’t go like this (clicks fingers) and say ‘it was not that bad’. It was bad. It was very important that we reacted,” he added.
“The atmosphere was obviously not too optimistic at half-time so to come out and do what we did was really nice.”
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