By Toby Prince
Jurgen Klopp, the self-proclaimed “Normal One,” left White Hart Lane on Saturday with what he labelled a “normal result” as his new Liverpool side drew 0-0 with Tottenham.
Much had been made of the German’s arrival in the Premier League as replacement for Brendan Rodgers but, with main striker Daniel Sturridge not risked due to a minor knee injury, he could not start his much-heralded reign at Anfield with a victory.
Divock Origi, with only 17 minutes of Premier League football to his name, started in place of Sturridge and came closest to winning the game for the visitors who had goalkeeper Simon Mignolet to thank for keeping a clean sheet.
Liverpool had won their previous five meetings with Spurs, including 5-0 and 3-0 wins at the Lane under Rodgers in their last two visits to North London.
As it turned out, Mauricio Pochettino’s Spurs side did enough to win the game and, after the opening 30 minutes, were more than a match for Klopp’s Liverpool.
Nacer Chadli was forced off in the early stages as he went down after defending a Liverpool corner, with Clinton Njie replacing him.
The Reds nearly took advantage of Chadli’s absence as, with Spurs momentarily down to 10 men, Emre Can flicked on James Milner’s corner and Origi’s header came back off the crossbar with Hugo Lloris beaten.
Klopp stood on the touchline since the opening moments from where he watched his new charges dominate the opening 25 minutes although they nearly fell behind after a sloppy pass from Adam Lallana.
The midfielder gifted the ball to England teammate Harry Kane, who did well to pick of Njie on the edge of the box — with the Cameroon international drawing a great save out of Mignolet.
Spurs were now starting to pass the ball as well as Liverpool had been doing earlier in the half and Christian Eriksen saw a shot deflected behind for a corner as they looked to break the deadlock.
Klopp returned to his seat just in time to see a mix-up between Nathaniel Clyne and Martin Skrtel allow Njie to nip in an arrow a shot just over the bar as Tottenham continued to force the issue.
The second half started much more evenly with neither side enjoying the dominance they had both sampled in the opening 45 minutes.
Liverpool will hope it does not remain that way in the early stages of a tenure they hope will finally deliver a league title.
