Liverpool Manager; Jurgen Klopp Insists They Must Once More Become Tough To Beat

Jurgen Klopp, the manager of Liverpool, acknowledges that his underwhelming team will need to revert to their fundamentals to address their current issues.

The Reds are now 10 points off the pace after suffering their sixth Premier League loss of the campaign at Brighton, but there isn’t much time left before their FA Cup semifinal against Wolves on Tuesday.

Klopp, though, claimed that their obstacle was more challenging to overcome.

“The issues we had in that game were obvious. In the end, these are football problems and you solve them with football and to play better football than we did at Brighton should not be too difficult,” he said.

“We have to be more compact. The pitch looks too big when we are defending. You have to go back to basics and from there you can make steps.

“We have to do some things slightly different and some things the same. All the success in football starts with solid defending and that’s what we have to do again.”

Three days after their trip to the south coast and three days before the third-round rematch, Klopp will alter his lineup. This could be a blessing in disguise as they have looked lethargic in recent weeks.

“We need fresh legs. The easy thing for me is to sit here and tell the boys ‘At Brighton, you put us in the situation so let’s see how you can get us out of it’,” said Klopp.

“But that would mean I am out of responsibility (not being responsible) and I just can’t.”

But I really can’t because that would imply that I am abdicating my duties. With any additions to the £38 million forward Cody Gakpo’s arrival highly doubtful due to budgetary constraints, Klopp has made his stance on the January transfer market quite plain.

Although he is aware that change is necessary, he feels the moment is not yet appropriate.

“We look outside as well. It’s not that we’re stubborn and think ‘We’ll go with these boys until 2050’. That’s not how we see it,” he said.

“It is all about what you can do and what you want to do – but much more important what you can do.

“If solutions for us were out there, available and do-able of course we would bring in players to help but we have an existing squad as well and we are under-performing, I know that.

“But I can’t sit here and blame the players every time. It is my responsibility that they perform.

“Yes we have limited options but we have players with a contract here, they are just not available. If they would be all-in it would be a different situation.

“Our squad is not too small. Do we have to strengthen? Oh yes. Is this the right moment to do it? I can’t see it because of the situation we are in. The situation doesn’t change, even though we lost another game since the last press conference.”

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Despite still being questionable for the Wolves encounter, Darwin Nunez is recovering from a minor muscle ailment, while teammate attacker Roberto Firmino is still out.

As part of Klopp’s adjustments, the midfield will likely be refreshed by players like Naby Keita, James Milner, and Stefan Bajcetic, and forward Fabio Carvalho—who hasn’t played in the last five games—may be included.