Liverpool had been outrun, outfought and outplayed. A centre-back had been taken off early and they had lost 4-1.
Every department of the team was a mess, but in particular it was the defence that looked all at sea as attack after attack simply passed through them, with chances scored and often even better ones missed.
They were a distinct second best, and Tottenham must have wondered how they didn’t win by more.
It was October 2017, and Mauricio Pochettino’s side were two up inside the first 12 minutes at Wembley thanks to goals from Harry Kane and Son Heung-min. The emerging Mo Salah, in his first Reds season, pulled one back but further goals from Dele Alli and Kane either side of half-time wrapped it up. Spurs could have had more.
As he surveyed the scene in front of him, Jurgen Klopp – almost exactly two years after his first Reds game in charge, a goalless draw at Tottenham – knew it wasn’t good enough.
“The whole game, the whole result was all our fault – Tottenham was good, they needed to be good, but we made it much too easy for them,” the German told Sky Sports.
“The first goal was a little throw in and we are not really there. It was just really bad, bad, bad defending.
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“If I am involved in this situation on the pitch, Harry [Kane] cannot get the ball.
“I could have been out there in my trainers and they wouldn’t have scored.”
As comments from Klopp go, it is about as harsh as he has ever been on his own players after a defeat, although Wednesday in Naples ran it close.
“We played bad in the first half but usually we don’t concede three goals.,” he said. “With Alisson in goal, you have to be really bad for that to happen.
“It looks like we have to reinvent ourselves. There is a lot of things lacking, the fun part is that we have to do it in the middle of a Premier League and Champions League season.
“We have Wolves on Saturday and if they saw the game tonight, they cannot stop laughing, they would say – and I would too – it is the perfect moment to play them. We have to set up better in pretty much everything.”
Circumstances have of course dictated that Liverpool are not playing Wolves this Saturday afternoon, but as he searches for ways to “reinvent” his side Klopp can do worse than look back to that 4-1 thrashing at Wembley nearly five years ago.
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That day he’d have to take a dizzied Dejan Lovren off just 31 minutes into the match, while in goal Simon Mignolet looked weak and ahead of him there was a lack of stability and cohesion in midfield.
The attack, too, needed remodelling. Sadio Mane was suspended and Philippe Coutinho didn’t quite look like he could cut it in a front three any more.
Klopp and Liverpool had already aggressively pursued Virgil van Dijk that summer of course, so he knew that the Reds needed a new defender and that they were willing to wait for the right man to become available, but in the immediate aftermath of the Spurs loss there were to go on an 18-match unbeaten run.
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It was an exciting, all-action Liverpool side which scored 55 goals in that 18-game period, culminating in the 4-3 success over Manchester City in mid-January 2018. Van Dijk had arrived by then, although didn’t play in that game, and it was a side that looked transformed.
So what can Klopp learn from that period as he surveys the scene now? To trust in his core beliefs and to go on the attack when needed.
Liverpool have already tried to “reinvent” themselves once this season, and so maybe the logical next step is to go back to what they know.
