Jurgen Klopp praised his players' resilience as the Liverpool manager toasted to an "absolutely massive" victory at Tottenham on Sunday.
Mohamed Salah scored twice in the first half before Harry Kane responded with 20 minutes to go, but the Reds held firm during a difficult second period where their defensive qualities had to be relied upon.
In a weekend where Chelsea and Manchester United both lost, Liverpool moved up to eighth and are now seven behind Spurs in fourth with a game in hand to be played next year.
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Klopp said he is uninterested by talk of how far away his squad is to the levels they hit last season but admired his team's dogged display after Kane had given the hosts something to chase.
“I am not interested [in comparing seasons]" said Klopp. "This game was completely normal for us. Last year we nearly won all four competitions but drew twice against Tottenham, so winning here is incredibly difficult.
"It is not like we always have to play like this, but we have to show the attitude, the commitment to defending. That’s what we have to show 100%.
"What we have to show is we are not punched too hard when we concede a goal, and I liked that today. I didn’t want to concede a goal, but the reaction was good, and everybody threw 100% in. That’s what I like the most.
"You cannot always consistently play outstandingly well; it is about showing the resilience we showed today. This isn’t the start of something or whatever. We realised it already and spoke about it but for tonight we could not reach more than three points, we got them and it is absolutely massive.
“If we have a normal game in the first half and it is 0-0 Tottenham would have thrown everything in the second half anyway so it makes life difficult. So you have to use your chances which we did in the first half – not all, but two – and then we have to fight and the boys did."
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