Jurgen Klopp demands full focus from Liverpool stars as they count down to Spurs clash - in pictures

Champions visit Fulham on Sunday before midweek epic against Tottenham

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Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp expects his players to have their full focus on struggling Fulham on Sunday despite a top-of-the-table encounter against Tottenham on the horizon.

The Reds face a Cottagers team who have taken just seven points from 11 matches this season with two victories in their last 10 games in all competitions.

Klopp oversaw training before the trip to London, putting Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah, Robert Firmino and the other Liverpool stars through their paces.

Wednesday's visit to Anfield of Jose Mourinho's high-flying Tottenham is a much more enticing prospect but Klopp insists they will continue to take their title defence one match at a time.

"I hope none of our players will think about Tottenham when we are in Fulham, to be honest," he said.

"The situation is like it is at the top of the table, everywhere in the table pretty much, there is not a lot of distance in between. We know that and I don't have to tell the boys constantly.

"Fulham are a really good football-playing side and the performances they showed were not all rewarded with results.

"The fight for staying in the league is a tight one as well, so each point helps and they will go for everything.

"If we let them play, they will play and the more we let them play, the more we have to defend and the more you have to defend, the more you have to run."

Having run away with a first league title in 30 years last season, winning by a massive 18 points from back-to-back champions Manchester City, it is unlikely the scenario will be repeated this time around.

Seven points separate the top 10 heading into the latest round of matches, and with the challenges this compressed season have thrown up, Klopp does not expect such a comfortable time.

"I am not the most experienced guy who can tell you how it is when you have a big gap between you and other teams, but last year, for whatever reason, it was like this," he added.

"Before a game, it is exactly the same like always, you want to win this game because it is not that you think, 'oh, there is a gap of 20 points between us and them, so we might play at 60 or 70 per cent' - it is not like that.

"We felt under pressure from ourselves last year and that's the same now, it didn't change. You don't look at other teams, it is much too early in the season.

"You just create a basis for the rest of the year and that's what we are still in.

"Whichever situation is there outside us, we cannot change, so we are not focused on it so we just try to win the next game and that's difficult enough."