Terrace Talk: Liverpool - Jurgen Klopp barely reaches a trot on debut day

A decent result. One point and a single step. So it begins.

Certainly not with the wild football Klopp initially promised, that will surely take a good while longer.

Masterchefs will still need the right ingredients, and when Laughing Boy checked the fridge he certainly hid his disgruntlement extremely well.

The away end was full of German flags and aspirational slogans. There was noise too, but there generally is on other peoples’ grounds. It’s on the Kop where the real test will be.

All those Uruguayan language experts from four years ago have turned their attention to Die Fatherland. Only a cold-blooded, cynical relic of a bygone era would frown upon the relish Liverpool fans are now displaying. Even the international call-up wrecking ball claiming Ings, Gomez and Rossiter couldn’t faze them. When Daniel Sturridge and his Rice Krispie legs started acting up again, there was hardly a murmur. Klopp really has instilled some much-needed belief.

It’s ironic that England’s least-English club (or so it claims) should suffer so often at the paws of the Three Lions. God must have his little joke.

The energy required for the new manager’s full-on physical onslaught may well have to be imported. Klopp himself seemed philosophical about the situation, playing down his plague of problems with a shrug. The façade of “what can you do but just get on with it?” might begin to slip after poorer results but for now it’s invigorating and not what we’re used to in the blame-shifting Premier League.

Before kick-off he couldn’t be seen at all because of photographers. Models don’t get this much attention on Parisian catwalks. By the time this nonsense has disappeared we’ll know that playtime is truly over and work has begun.

It was a good draw in the end, though both teams seemed to miss many of their cues. So often the way when a fixture captures the imagination, it rarely matches the hype, a powder keg but no-one brought matches.

Despite being favourites, Tottenham clearly hadn’t forgotten the beatings handed out by Rodgers’ teams and lacked the courage to really go at this Liverpool side. Others, you feel, may not be so timid.

Sakho was strong, making the usual nonsense of his previous manager’s assessment that Lovren deserved more chances than he did. Maybe Skrtel’s the one who should worry, as he keeps switching off at key moments. Kane wasn’t really up to speed on Saturday either, so he got away with it a bit.

Everybody was auditioning in a way. I’m not sure what’s happening with Milner, he’s clearly out of sorts, but if there was any private agreement about where he played with Rodgers, Klopp tore it up immediately and stuck him on the wing. The subsequent performance hinted at a strop, were it not so out of character for the lad.

After the international break, Liverpool find themselves back in two games a week mode, with a squad growing thinner than Rooney’s latest implant.

Klopp’s latched onto an interesting method of encouragement by claiming this player and that was on his radar while at Dortmund. There’s an obvious problem looming where he’ll start sounding cracked, but he’s generally laughing anyway so who can tell?

I thought the line between cheerleading and downright insanity would have been reached with Origi, but the lad knuckled down to a lonely task on Saturday and with Ings out of the way and Sturridge thoroughly unreliable he may need all the confidence boosts he can get.

Europe next, and hopefully an end to the bafflingly weak teams Rodgers was putting out? Klopp might not have the choice, though.