Jurgen Klopp is hopeful that Liverpool's cup exit to Manchester United could turn out to be good preparation for their crunch Premier League clash with Tottenham.
The Reds went down 3-2 to their bitter rivals in round four of the FA Cup on Sunday to make it just one win in their last seven games in all competitions.
Liverpool switch focus back to league matters on Thursday as they seek a solution to their goalscoring issues, the defending champions having failed to net in four top-flight games running.
And despite being knocked out of the cup at the weekend, Klopp believes there are positives to take into the trip to Tottenham.
"It was good preparation for the Spurs game with their counter-attacking threat," he said.
"We know exactly what we have to work on. If you are in a situation you don't like, you want to get out of it. We want to get out of it and for that we have to make steps.
"Against United we made these steps - not the final ones, but we made steps and that's okay for the moment."
Tottenham are a point behind Liverpool with a game in hand to play, though Jose Mourinho's men have struggled for consistency in recent weeks.The north London side have not won back-to-back league games since November, but they saw off Wycombe Wanderers 4-1 in the FA Cup on Monday to remain on course for silverware on four fronts.
Despite being forced to bring on big-hitters Harry Kane and Son Heung-min with the game delicately poised in the second half, Mourinho does not believe tiredness will be an issue against Liverpool.
"What could I do? We wanted to progress in the FA Cup and not throw it away," he said.
"We knew that we needed a good strong team and bench, just in case so it would be a problem if we had to play 30 minutes extra time, because then the Kane 30 minutes becomes 60, the (Pierre-Emile) Hojbjerg 45 becomes 75 and so on.
"Hopefully, nothing happened. I didn't see huge fatigue. Hopefully we managed to play and not have big injuries or fatigue."
KEY PLAYERS
Tottenham - Harry Kane
Kane has scored in Tottenham's last three Premier League games and is looking to make that four in a row for the first time since January 2019. Each of the England international's last five league goals for the club have come in the first half of games.
Liverpool - Robert Firmino
The Brazil international's place in the side may have been called into question once again in recent weeks, but Firmino set up two goals against Man United to prove his worth.
He has scored in four of his last five Premier League matches against Spurs, including the winning goal in three of those four encounters.
KEY OPTA FACTS
- Tottenham have lost their last five league matches against Liverpool - they have never lost six in a row against the Reds.
- Liverpool are looking to win three consecutive away league matches against Spurs for the very first time, winning 2-1 in 2018-19 and 1-0 in 2019-20.
- This is the first time Tottenham and Liverpool have ever met on a Thursday in the top flight. Liverpool have beaten Spurs on each of the other six days of the week, and they could become the third team to beat them on all seven in top-flight history after Everton and West Ham.
- Liverpool have picked up just one win in their last eight away Premier League games (D5 L2), netting as many goals in that one win - 7-0 v Crystal Palace - as they have managed in their seven winless games in this run.
- Despite facing Liverpool's Klopp only eight times in the league, only against Pep Guardiola (five) has Spurs boss Mourinho lost more games than he has against the German (four).
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