Liverpool have to go ‘back to the basics’ to improve form: Klopp

LONDON (Agencies): Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp says his side have to go “back to the basics” to try to improve their defending.

Klopp’s side are ninth in the Premier League after just two top-flight wins in seven games this season.

They have conceded 14 goals in nine games across all competitions, keeping just two cleans sheets.

“When you spot a problem and think you have the solution, you expect [it] to be instant. That’s never the case in football,” Klopp said.

“We’ve conceded similar goals now, they have gone through the same gaps.
“When the timing in our defending isn’t perfect we’re too open. So yes, we have to be more compact.

“Defending is an art and it worked for us really well for a long time. But with it not working, you realise you have to go back to the basics.

“We can’t always start anew. If we can help the boys with ways to defend differently, we have to do that.”

Liverpool let in three goals in a 3-3 draw against Brighton on Saturday, leaving them 11 points behind Premier League leaders Arsenal and 10 adrift of second-placed Manchester City, who have both played a game more.

“People can ask how could it happen that these players are not full of confidence?” said Klopp, whose side play Scottish club Rangers in a Champions League group game on Tuesday.

“Do you think [Manchester United forward] Cristiano Ronaldo at this moment is top of his confidence levels?

“He was for ages the best player in the world and now it is not going his way and it is not exactly the same. That happens to all of us.

“Lionel Messi played last season [his first at Paris St-Germain] where it was not exactly the same because these kind of things are really important to all of us and you have to work for it.

“You have to take the little things to take a step in the right direction and be really ready for the moment when it is back and that is what we are doing.”