Jurgen Klopp: Liverpool aren't '500 miles' behind Manchester City

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Jurgen Klopp will see his team’s title credentials come under the microscope again this weekend with the visit to Tottenham and insists they are not as far behind leaders Manchester City as the league table suggests.

Pep Guardiola’s near-perfect start to the campaign featured a 5-0 thrashing of Liverpool and, with just nine games of the season gone by the end of this weekend, City could hold a 12-point advantage over Klopp’s men come Sunday evening.

But the German, whose team enters the weekend in eighth place in the table, is adamant that they can improve on last season’s fourth-placed finish and refuses to even rule out a run at the league title so early in the campaign.

“I don’t compare City with us but I think everyone can see we are not 500 miles away,” said Klopp. “But they fly. It was so far a very decisive day when we lost 5-0. I thought we did OK. Dealing with a 5-0 defeat is not easiest thing, we did well, we didn’t lose confidence but we were not that fluent.

“There was no doubt about it. The way of football they play I would say is not something we are too far away from but to be as clinical as they have been so far? We weren’t.

“That’s the thing. We are still in the race, not with City in the moment because they have I don’t how many points.

“We have all the other things. I don’t say already we should only fight for top-four place. Performance-wise we are a team that should be there, but now we have to get the results.

“We can make steps, from a very good season last year, we can make steps this year. Position-wise I think it should be possible, but difficult with the few points we have given away.

“It is a long season, if we can bring in consistency and be more ruthless and things like this, more clinical in situations because of confidence and all that stuff then we can win games, I would say a lot.”

A successful campaign could aid Klopp in his on-going attempts to convince key players Philippe Coutinho and Emre Can to pledge their futures to Anfield.

Reports connecting Coutinho with Barcelona during the upcoming January transfer window persist while Can, whose contract expires at the end of the current campaign, has also been repeatedly linked with interested parties around Europe.

“As a club, we have to still create a situation where players want to be part of it,” he said. “In this moment, we have this.

“Nobody thinks about January, nobody thinks of June or July. Everyone wants to be part of this but there will come transfer windows and we will see what happens.

“We have to, as a club, give everything until the players give me signs that they are somewhere else or whatever. I don’t think about it. That’s the only thing I can be interested.

“If I start asking Emre every day how it is going then… so far there is not a shadow of a doubt that he’s not 100 per cent here.”

Sunday’s visit to Spurs should produce one of the weekend’s more attractive fixtures, in stark contrast to last weekend’s goalless stalemate with Manchester United at Anfield.

And, in 11-goal Harry Kane, Klopp believes his opponents boast one of the leading goalscorers in the world.

“It is a nice football game, I think every supporter will be looking forward to it,” said Klopp. “Both teams don't hesitate with any effort or investment.

“Both teams are spot-on and want to do their best. Tottenham have done a lot better than us results-wise and I am sure they can play better than they played so far – we can play better than we played so far.

“They have had fantastic development since I am in England. They were already good when I came in. Pochettino was there already a year there so you could already see what they can achieve in the future.

“It will be a big challenge for them in the next few years because Harry is not only one of the best strikers in Europe he is one of the best strikers in the world, 100 per cent.”