Arne Slot makes ‘strange’ Spurs admission as Liverpool warned to beware ‘wounded animal’

Arne Slot has warned his Liverpool side to beware facing a ‘wounded animal’ in Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield on Sunday.

Both teams have endured a desperately disappointing season, with the Reds languishing in sixth place and facing a battle just to qualify for the Champions League.

For Spurs, our ‘crisis’ represents a distant dream, with the north Londoners sitting just one point above the relegation zone as of Saturday morning and having not won a Premier League match since the end of December.

Slot warns Liverpool to beware ‘wounded animal’ Spurs

Despite the precarious situation in which Igor Tudor’s side find themselves, Slot has used his programme notes for tomorrow’s game to warn Liverpool fans not to expect a cakewalk at Anfield.

The Reds’ head coach wrote (via Liverpool FC): ‘This means taking on a Tottenham team which has its own reasons for needing a strong finish to the campaign. For someone like me who always followed English football from a distance before coming to this country, it is strange seeing them in their current situation, and this is one of the reasons why I do not expect it to last.

‘At the same time, their circumstances mean they will arrive at Anfield not just as a wounded animal, but also as a team which knows it has to scrap for survival and which has a point to prove. This makes them a dangerous opponent regardless of recent results or league position, and we will treat them as such.’

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Liverpool can’t afford to take Spurs for granted

Paul Merson and Chris Sutton are among the numerous pundits expecting a comfortable home win for Liverpool on Sunday, and the teams’ respective league positions – as well as Spurs’ horrendous form – would make the Reds clear favourites to claim all three points.

For the under-fire Tudor, the task is made even harder by Cristian Romero and Joao Palhinha joining a top-heavy injury list which also includes Micky van de Ven, Yves Bissouma, James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski among a dozen confirmed absences (Premier Injuries).

All logic would seemingly point towards victory for LFC, but Slot isn’t just merely toeing the diplomatic line with his comments on tomorrow’s opponents – he knows all too well that his side can’t take their visitors for granted.

Three of the current bottom six have taken points at Anfield already this season (Nottingham Forest helped themselves to all three in November), and the recent defeat to bottom club Wolves again highlighted Liverpool’s infuriating tendency to trip up in games they’d be expected to win emphatically.

Also, Spurs go to Anfield without the usual burden of expectation which is placed upon them in Premier League fixtures and may feel they have a point to prove with so many pundits effectively giving their team talk for them by writing them off so readily.

If the Reds play with the right attitude for 90+ minutes and are ruthless in both penalty boxes, they’ll likely have too much quality for their opponents to handle. However, Slot is right to warn against complacency, and his side have their own critics to answer on Sunday.

You can watch Slot’s full pre-Tottenham Hotspur press conference below, via Empire of the Kop on YouTube:

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