"Revolutions rarely arrive in timely fashion. In the buildup to this match the sense of pre-Klopp euphoria surrounding the arrival of Liverpool’s new manager had something proselytizing about it, something of the 19th-century revivalist roadshow. Aslan is here. The snowdrops are peeping through. The hundred-year winter will soon be at an end.
In the event the dawning of the age of Klopp was a fevered, concussive, inconclusive affair. As was always likely to be the case given that after a week in the job Klopp was essentially picking up by the scruff the cadaver of Brendan Rodgers’ old team and marching it around White Hart Lane in front of him.
At the end Klopp smiled, hugged everyone, waved to the fans and was deliberately a little mute with his judgments. It was, in one sense, an ideal start, evidence over 90 minutes of energetic intent masquerading as elite-level football of the job in hand for a manager who is for all his electrifying personal qualities very much in love with the process."
Barney Ronay, The Observer
"Two years ago Liverpool came here and ripped the feathers off Tottenham Hotspur’s cockerel, winning 5-0 and moving up to second in the Premier League as Brendan Rodgers approached his Anfield zenith. Liverpool’s play was intense then, too, with what people now call “lightning transitions,” but among the goalscorers on that happy day were Raheem Sterling and Luis Suárez.
Jump ahead to the coming of Jürgen Klopp and Liverpool are industrious again, like clockwork mice. They are hunting down opponents ‘high up the pitch’ and expending every watt of energy. This is not a reinvention of association football – and nor would Klopp claim it to be. Clear away the cult of personality and there is one immutable truth. Teams win prizes when the quality of the players strikes a critical level, as it almost did with Suárez, Sterling and Daniel Sturridge. Klopp’s talent roster now is far below that standard, especially with Sturridge, Christian Benteke and Danny Ings all missing.
This is Liverpool’s third big wisdom‑import from other countries. Gérard Houllier (France) came first, followed by Rafa Benítez (Spain) and now Klopp (Germany). Each time a cultural upheaval follows – but Klopp’s ideas are not complicated, and there will be no rewriting of Liverpool’s identity. Put simply, the players are just going to have to work a hell of a lot harder and regain the lost Liverpool swagger in the final third of the field.
Nobody wants to hear it, but it will take two years or more to raise the quality of this squad to where it needs to be. But this was a “cool” enough beginning."
Paul Hayward, Sunday Telegraph
“After nine days of talk and toothy grins, match day saw Klopp get serious.
No more selfies. Time to work. And what work those Liverpool players have in store. What sweat red jerseys are about to absorb. A team who were growing disinterested and dysfunctional under Brendan Rodgers were transformed into a hunting, harrying, hundred-miles-an-hour machine.
And yet what work Klopp also needs to do. For all their effort, Liverpool were not the best side: in Tottenham, Klopp came up against the prime example of how, in this competition, he will have to go some if he’s to stand out by making men run."
Jonathan Northcroft, Sunday Times