Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool have to ‘go back to basics’ following the club’s 3-0 defeat at Brighton.
Liverpool have begun the new year in poor form and suffered a second successive Premier League loss at the weekend, with Klopp calling his side’s performance against Brighton the worst of his managerial career.
The Reds were thrashed in comprehensive fashion at the Amex Stadium and are now ten points adrift of the top four, facing an uphill task to secure Champions League football.
Liverpool return to action with an FA Cup replay at Wolves on Tuesday evening and Klopp says his focus is on addressing his side’s issues at Brighton.
“Losing the way we lost is bad enough but facing all of you doesn’t make life better,” he said at his pre-match press conference. “Questions were fair but after this [result] it’s difficult to give answers people want to hear.
“Everything looks different two days later, doesn’t make the game better though. The next game is waiting and that’s the good thing. That’s what we are preparing. The issues we had in the game [Brighton] were obvious.”
Klopp believes his side must revert back to basics in a bid to regain their form, after a run of unconvincing performances and three games without a win.
“You always go back to basics, that’s what you have to do,” he said.
“We have to be more compact, not only tomorrow. That is 100 per cent clear. We have to get back to solid defending.”
The German discussed the atmosphere in his squad and said team spirit remains ‘good’ at Anfield, but admits his side have not performed to their potential ‘too often this season’.
“The boys are good with each other, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be clear from what they want from each other. We are very clear with ourselves, we don’t hide.
“We have to admit too often this season we haven’t played to our potential. That’s where we want to go again. We don’t want to turn time back, but we have to start again.
“We were not compact against Brighton and then you saw other situations where players tried to press, but the formation was not there.”
