Jurgen Klopp believes Jose Mourinho has transformed Tottenham Hotspur.
Liverpool welcome the Premier League leaders in Wednesday’s top-of-the-table clash with the reigning champions sitting second on goal difference.
The Anfield meeting marks two years since Mourinho was jettisoned as Manchester United manager on the back of a 3-1 defeat to the Reds.
But Klopp insists that the Portuguese’s current body of work with the north Londoners is incomparable with what he left behind at Old Trafford in 2018.
He said: “I don’t think you can compare the last game from Man United to now.
“That is obviously, from a confidence level, completely different for both teams.
“I think the very long time Jose Mourinho is successfully around the football business, he played pretty much all different systems and a lot of different styles.
“As a coach you have to adapt to the quality you have and mix it up with the ideas you have. That’s one of the best skills of Jose.
“In the end it is all about getting the results and that is the best skill of Jose because in the decisive moments he is not bothered about style, it is just about the result.
“That makes him the most successful manager around at the moment.
“I respect him a lot. Has he reinvented himself? I don’t know. It looks a little bit like that when you see him on Instagram, or at least that part of him.
“But I think he is just so experienced and smart that he knows what he has to do. He asked at the beginning for time and I think that has paid off.”
Klopp also provided an update on Virgil van Dijk’s condition as the defender continues to work his way back from a knee injury suffered in October.
“Virgil’s a very posiitve person and since he overcame the shock of the actual injury, he’s in a really good mood and working hard to get back,” said the Liverpool manager.
“But this is a very long, long-term injury.
“It was still, I have to say, a crazy challenge which I still don’t understand. I don’t think about it but you ask me and it comes up.
“It’s a very, very serious injury and it will take time, but he makes the steps he can make in the moment.”