Jurgen Klopp has called for his Liverpool team to stay positive and fight for every last point after a key setback in the race for Champions League qualification against Crystal Palace.
Christian Benteke’s double after Philippe Coutinho’s sublime free-kick consigned the Reds to a 2-1 defeat on a hugely frustrating afternoon at Anfield.
The result leaves Liverpool three points ahead of Manchester United, having played two games more, though they may find solace in the fact that their rivals must still face Manchester City, Tottenham and Arsenal.
Speaking to the press after the match, Klopp was keen to take the positives, urging his team to refocus ahead of the visit to Watford next week.
“It’s frustrating, yes, it’s disappointing of course, and I know what everybody thinks – ‘the Champions League slips through our fingers’,” the German told BBC Sport.
“It’s one month for us, and I think it’s really easy to stay concentrated for one more month and to stay positive. I’m not positive at the moment, but give me a few hours and I am again.
“We have to try everything, to squeeze everything out of the season. We obviously don’t have the easiest situation, but we can moan, or we can use it. The plan is to use it.
“When we start training again this week, I want us to be really focused on the things that we can reach in the rest of the season. We had a lot of good moments.
“We will build on the few good things and work on the bad things, then we go again.”
After the trip to Vicarage Road, the Reds host Southampton before rounding off the season with games against West Ham and relegation strugglers Middlesbrough.
Failure to qualify the Champions League would be a devastating blow for the Reds and could cost them many of their prospective summer transfer targets.
