Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho insists Liverpool cannot complain about the absence of injured defenders Virgil an Dijk and Joe Gomez.

With Liverpool set to face Tottenham on Thursday evening, Mourinho has been asked how he would deal with Liverpool's centre-back problems.

Speaking at his pre-match press conference, Mourinho said: "Well, we played half of last season without any attacking players. We had a period where we played Lucas every minute of every match, striker, winger, winger, striker.

"We lost Kane, we lost Son, we lost Bergwijn, we lost Lamela, we lost everybody. How did we manage? Miracles, we did not do it. To make strikers from right-backs or left-backs or goalkeeper Joe Hart – can he play striker because he's very tall and strong.

"You cannot make miracles. You have to compensate with what you have and Liverpool, when you speak about Van Dijk, you cannot replace him. There are some players you cannot replace.

"Like when Harry Kane was injured. You cannot replace Harry Kane. You cannot replace Van Dijk. You can only replace Van Dijk with Van Dijk when Van Dijk is back.

"They have good players, they have experienced players. Fabinho, he can play everywhere. Everywhere. Matip back, experienced player. Jordan Henderson is another guy that with his experience and knowledge of the game, he can play everywhere too. And then they have also a couple of young players that they did OK, for example Williams against us played very well at Anfield.

"Sometimes it happens to clubs. Some players are really impossible to replace and you have to wait until they're back and that's what's happening with Van Dijk."