A deflated Jurgen Klopp admits Liverpool need to up their game immediately if they are to avoid total collapse in the wake of another costly defeat at Hull.
After a gutsy display in a midweek earned the Reds a 1-1 draw with league leaders Chelsea, Klopp’s men were tipped to end their winless run against the relegation strugglers.
Goals from Alfred N’Diaye and Oumar Niasse, however, saw the visitors fall to a 2-0 defeat despite dominating possession once again.
Liverpool are now 13 points off the pace and will find themselves out of the top four if Manchester City avoid defeat at home to Swansea on Sunday.
Speaking after the game, Klopp refused to take any positives from his side’s display and accepted responsibility for their recent struggles.
“The assessment? We gave easy goals away and we didn’t play the first half as we should have played – especially when you saw the second half,” the German said, as quoted by the official Liverpool website.
“You think then if we’d played from the beginning like this, with this direction, speed, kind of greed and all that stuff, then I think it would have been more difficult for Hull to cope with this.
“We gave the first half away and from the result side, we gave the second half away. With the first half, we put ourselves under pressure in the second half.
“We have to take all of the criticism. Not even a week ago in the press conference, I spoke about expectations at Liverpool and said, ‘Come on, it’s allowed to have a positive look on the situation, we are still fourth in the league’ and everything like this – but after a game like this, it’s not allowed to say something like this.
“We expect more from ourselves and we have to show more than we did today. It is my responsibility to make it possible for the players to show more than we showed today.”
With the Reds’ title hopes now in tatters, Klopp says an instant turnaround will be necessary to ensure a return to the Champions League next season.
“We need to show much more consistency than we do now on the positive side,” he added. The Champions League is an outstandingly big, big, big target. It’s fantastic and so many teams want to play there.
“We have to show now, really, that we are really ready to go for everything. I can say it, but it will not change a lot – we have to show it together.
“There are a lot of things to do and as an overall statement, we have to change immediately.”
Liverpool have now dropped points to three of the bottom four clubs but will take solace from their unbeaten record against the top six ahead of next weekend’s crush meeting with Spurs.
