Jurgen Klopp says a lack of quality is a factor in Liverpool's inconsistency this season and suggested they must learn to play more simply to address their difficulties against teams in the bottom half of the Premier League.
After Saturday's 3-1 win over Arsenal, Liverpool have now taken a league-high 19 points from a possible 27 in games against the current top six and remain unbeaten against those sides.
Their Premier League defeats this season have come against Burnley, Bournemouth, Swansea, Hull and Leicester -- all sides in the bottom half of the table -- and Klopp accepted a suggestion that his side has lacked quality.
"I don't want to make it too philosophical," he said. "It is obviously the case we are inconsistent. I know we don't have to doubt the attitude, and the kind of attitude we usually are looking for was here against Arsenal -- they were really motivated and you cannot play like this if you have any issues -- but we struggled in other games.
"So, OK, you say it is about quality and sometimes probably, yeah, we don't have the quality, but with quality you have potential, and you make quality with work and all that stuff.
"If we judge the players after the best game of the season, then we sign a contract for another six seasons; if we do it after Leicester then you change the whole squad. But the truth is always in between. That is what we are working on, really working on.
"There will be moments when we play like this [against Arsenal] and win again -- and it is what we did this season already, in fact -- and it will be against a team not in the top six, but we have to work on it. First of all we have to feel like it is possible." Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool have proved more effective against the Premier League's top sides.
Liverpool face Burnley on Sunday and Klopp said: "I didn't see Burnley for a few weeks, but I will see them a lot this week and probably they defend with many legs, quite a good counter-attacking game."
He said in their worst performances his side had often "tried to play too small, and gave the ball easy away and invited them for the counter attack. That's not allowed, so we have to keep the game as simple as possible.
"At this moment we expect Burnley in the highest point of their season, but maybe we can surprise them with the things we've learned?"
Klopp was asked whether the performances like the one against Arsenal would make it harder for him to be ruthless when reshaping his squad in the summer.
"I understand the question, and it's a good question, because after the last game [against Leicester] I was low, angry whatever, and I am not angry in this moment," he said.
"It is not that we are not serious in the things we are doing. The important thing in a development is that you take the information you get, work with it. Most of the info you don't like. When everything is perfect already, then you think: 'Yeah, well, OK, come on, done, now we can deliver' -- and we can already very often deliver.
"But I said, in life, we are all a little bit like this, that we let the bad things influence us more than the good things, otherwise we would celebrate our birthday maybe longer than one day.
"We are like this, but especially in this moment, the club is completely together. Usually it is not that hard, but only because it is Liverpool and everybody expects we already should be somewhere else -- I understand this 100 percent, it is our aim, it is where we want to be.
"We are completely fine, the owners are fine, they are completely with us, the players we have a wonderful relationship ... but that doesn't mean we say every day what they want to hear. It means we work together on the things we are not as good as [they should be] -- I'm not sure if we could already be or not."
After Saturday's 3-1 win over Arsenal, Liverpool have now taken a league-high 19 points from a possible 27 in games against the current top six and remain unbeaten against those sides.
Their Premier League defeats this season have come against Burnley, Bournemouth, Swansea, Hull and Leicester -- all sides in the bottom half of the table -- and Klopp accepted a suggestion that his side has lacked quality.
"I don't want to make it too philosophical," he said. "It is obviously the case we are inconsistent. I know we don't have to doubt the attitude, and the kind of attitude we usually are looking for was here against Arsenal -- they were really motivated and you cannot play like this if you have any issues -- but we struggled in other games.
"So, OK, you say it is about quality and sometimes probably, yeah, we don't have the quality, but with quality you have potential, and you make quality with work and all that stuff.
"If we judge the players after the best game of the season, then we sign a contract for another six seasons; if we do it after Leicester then you change the whole squad. But the truth is always in between. That is what we are working on, really working on.
"There will be moments when we play like this [against Arsenal] and win again -- and it is what we did this season already, in fact -- and it will be against a team not in the top six, but we have to work on it. First of all we have to feel like it is possible." Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool have proved more effective against the Premier League's top sides.
Liverpool face Burnley on Sunday and Klopp said: "I didn't see Burnley for a few weeks, but I will see them a lot this week and probably they defend with many legs, quite a good counter-attacking game."
He said in their worst performances his side had often "tried to play too small, and gave the ball easy away and invited them for the counter attack. That's not allowed, so we have to keep the game as simple as possible.
"At this moment we expect Burnley in the highest point of their season, but maybe we can surprise them with the things we've learned?"
Klopp was asked whether the performances like the one against Arsenal would make it harder for him to be ruthless when reshaping his squad in the summer.
"I understand the question, and it's a good question, because after the last game [against Leicester] I was low, angry whatever, and I am not angry in this moment," he said.
"It is not that we are not serious in the things we are doing. The important thing in a development is that you take the information you get, work with it. Most of the info you don't like. When everything is perfect already, then you think: 'Yeah, well, OK, come on, done, now we can deliver' -- and we can already very often deliver.
"But I said, in life, we are all a little bit like this, that we let the bad things influence us more than the good things, otherwise we would celebrate our birthday maybe longer than one day.
"We are like this, but especially in this moment, the club is completely together. Usually it is not that hard, but only because it is Liverpool and everybody expects we already should be somewhere else -- I understand this 100 percent, it is our aim, it is where we want to be.
"We are completely fine, the owners are fine, they are completely with us, the players we have a wonderful relationship ... but that doesn't mean we say every day what they want to hear. It means we work together on the things we are not as good as [they should be] -- I'm not sure if we could already be or not."
source:espn
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