JURGEN KLOPP IS confident Liverpool can win games more consistently and remain in the Premier League title race this season.
The Anfield side surrendered a lead to draw 1-1 with Newcastle United on Sunday, leaving them with a record of just one league win from their last four games and one in seven in all competitions.
Klopp’s side are already seven points behind leaders Manchester City and Manchester United – their next opponents - but the German is sure his side can catch up as the season goes on.
“I really think it looks like we are not far away from a real challenger,” he told reporters. “If we do what we are good at then we can score more goals and we will win more games and we don’t have to think about other teams and we will close the gap.
“I cannot talk about our football and the gap between us and other teams. We have our hard moment. Other teams will have their hard moment.
“We need to work on our thing. It is all about our situation, we are not thinking about where the others are.
“I have not seen a drop in confidence from the players. It is our duty to be confident because the boys have the quality. We need to play football. If you try and try and try and it doesn’t work…
“Then Philippe Coutinho scores the goal of the moment and we make one mistake. We made one real mistake. I’m not sure who was responsible and then at the end, unlucky, it is one-one.”
Daniel Sturridge and Mohamed Salah were among those who missed chances to wrap up the three points for the Reds, but Klopp refused to criticise them for their inefficiency.
“What is my job? Say, ‘Mo, don’t do that next time and Daniel please have a look next time?’ They know that and they will do that next time.
“I thought we were the more active and the better side and created more chances, which we should used use. We should have won. I have to accept it.
“If you dominate you cannot avoid each counter attack. I cannot imagine one situation where they had a chance on the counter attack.”
Very easy to blame a few mistakes when in truth the individuals and the system were terrible. Ireland don’t have an offload/continuity game yet that’s what we tried from the first ball against the best team in the world. We didn’t help ourselves with poor kicking and cheap turnovers but to not mention the coaches and tactics in this analysis is very short-sighted
@Mark Dooley: players largely to blame for basic errors. Coaching staff have to take blame for selection of non form & rusty players and for lack of variety to our game since our the win v all blacks. It was a chance for them to throw caution to the wind and start the with at the least Beirne, ruddock & larmour.
Good analysis Murray
@Mark Dooley: this excellent analysis clear shows that the team was well set up tactically as we were creating space but basic errors by players meant we failed to take advantage of those opportunities. In fact we turned the ball over and handed advantage to NZ. Once again an Irish team has not turned up for a World Cup. That for me is a mental issue that we need to face up to and overcome. Blaming coaches, injuries etc only avoiding the truth and the real issue. Interesting to hear Schmidt say they started focusing on this QTR final end last year, just before their form went to shit.
@Mark Dooley: Excellent analysis by Murray. I disagree with you blaming the coaches & tactics. Uncharacteristic errors, missed kicks & missed tackles by players cost us dearly plus NZ were ruthlessly clinical imho.
@David Supple: coaches responsible for selecting out of form players based on what they have done in the past. Kearney in particular was a pick to try and not lose a game rather than win one as he offers nothing in attack. All you gave to do is look at the abs selection policy for 15 and it is almost always a try scoring machine and the rawness of the two wings to see what proactive selection looks like.
It will be interesting to see what a defensive coach in Farrell. thinks or does with Stockdale. His instinct is to go for the interception and he bites quite a bite. When it works it’s fantastic but when it doesn’t it’s at least 3 points.
I’m not singling our Stockdale but more how our new coach sees it.
Why in this article and others are teams lauded for being able to catch and pass the ball, these players are playing rugby 5 days a week why do we think catch pass is so special, is it because Ireland are so bad at it? Its been killing Munster for 10 years when will we wake up to the basic skills required????
The muppets in the crowd should have shut up and respected the haka. Those clowns over there are just bandwagon jumpers.
@munsterman: Totally disagree, it should be shown as much respect that it deserves and that is f£¥k all!
@munsterman: stupid comment. Had nothing to do with anything