Jurgen Klopp has admitted his ‘worry’ about Liverpool’s recent form and has revealed his anger with his side following their 1-0 defeat at Southampton.
Liverpool’s title defence suffered a setback as they were beaten for the second time in the Premier League this season, former Reds forward Danny Ings scoring the only goal of the game with a brilliantly improvised lobbed finished.
Klopp’s side remain top of the division on goal difference despite their defeat at St Mary’s, though both Manchester United and Manchester City can now overhaul the champions of they win their games-in-hand.
The defeat continued a poor run of festive form for Liverpool who have scored once and taken just two points from their past three fixtures, and Klopp admits the lacklustre nature of his side’s recent performances are a ‘worry’.
“Of course we worry about it,” he told his post match press conference. “These are our problems.
“Football-wise, you don’t have a lot of different problems – it’s like you defend bad or we attack not as good as we can or we create not enough. They are football problems; yes, we are worried about that but football problems you solve with football and that’s what we are working on.
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“We know about the situation, we are not silly, and we have to show a reaction, 100 per cent.”
Klopp was uncharacteristically critical of his players following the clash and admits his side’s showing against the Saints ‘was not good enough’, warning the Reds that previous achievements count for little as they bid to defend their Premier League crown.
“I know they are great guys,” he said. “They are super boys, it’s a fantastic group of players. But anyway tonight they were not good.
“Yes, when I think they should have done better then I get angry – not long but I get angry. They know that and it was always like this.
“We cannot only be like this [pats his head] all the time just because we won something in the past. But we don’t have to make it bigger than it is, but it’s big.
“So we didn’t win the last game, the game before that, the last four games – I don’t know, is that right? And that’s all our fault – mainly my fault but the boys had a hand in as well. We have to change that.
“If you bring yourself in a situation like we did tonight against an opponent like Southampton, then you play with the fire, let me say it like this. Southampton is too good for that, Premier League teams are too good for that. And we don’t score late goals because we scored late goals in our past.
“You do that because you put the opponent under that much pressure that they cannot cope with it anymore. I think Southampton was tonight on the edge of it but they still could cope with it because we helped. That’s all. We were not good enough tonight.”
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