Jürgen Klopp says Liverpool are “too easy” to play against and must toughen up to win the Premier League.
Klopp’s team travels to Fulham on Sunday in third, two points behind Manchester City and below Arsenal on goal differential, after drawing and losing to Manchester United and Crystal Palace.
They also lost 3-1 to Atalanta in the Europa League quarterfinals on Thursday and are doing poorly.
Klopp feels he can depart on a high if his players recover the character and class that had them battling on all fronts a little over a month ago. Their ambitions of completing a quadruple in his last season are gone.
No season goes by without me thinking, ‘Ah, we should have won that, we should have done that.’ Klopp said confronting them is part of life. The number of punches you get is never as important as how you handle them. We must handle it that way.
Football is difficult because we always play against someone. So we have to make sure we become that opponent each team doesn’t want to play against again—we made it too easy.”
On Thursday, Klopp declared, “I loved our game,” and Liverpool won the second leg in Bergamo 1-0 with their first clean sheet in 10 outings.
Trent Alexander-Arnold made his first start in two months after recovering from a knee ailment, and Diogo Jota made his third substitute appearance after a similar injury.
Klopp sees Andrew Robertson, Dominik Szoboszlai, and Curtis Jones’ return as another reason to believe Liverpool can win a second title under him, but he cautioned.
I’m glad they’re back, but it’s about performance, not who wears the shirt. We must find a means to help the boys quickly get into their best shape and then go.
Everyone plays with that quality, so we wouldn’t have a chance without them. We have a chance, and in a good football moment, it grows.
“If we win all our games, we could be champions. Maybe we only need five wins, but who knows. Who would have predicted Arsenal would lose to Villa?
We must go, but it’s not my favorite away game. But it does. We disregard that. The question is how to win games again. I’m optimistic and joyful after absorbing everything.”
After Fulham, Liverpool play Everton on Wednesday night in the Klopp era’s penultimate Merseyside derby before meeting West Ham at the London Stadium on Saturday lunchtime.
