NEWS. . . BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
Jurgen Klopp believes Arsenal’s defensive solidity under William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes has been key in the Premier League title race after Liverpool’s 2-0 defeat to Everton on Wednesday night.
Liverpool lost ground to Premier League leaders Arsenal as the defeat at Goodison Park left them three points behind Mikel Arteta’s side and just one behind Manchester City, who have played two games less.
Liverpool have now recorded just two wins in their last six games in all competitions, a form that has also knocked them out of the Europa League against Atalanta.
But Klopp believes Liverpool’s injuries have been a key factor in their run of effects both domestically and in Europe.
Asked about the reasons for Liverpool’s inconsistency in recent weeks after the defeat to Merseyside rivals Everton, Klopp replied: “There are other aspects.
“The players who have played every game are not so fresh, but it’s the same with the other teams. I don’t need to use that as an excuse, as long as the guys are fit and not injured, it helps. “
“Let me tell you that Gabriel and [William] Saliba have played every single game for Arsenal. Did they play a little less than us? I don’t even know one hundred percent, but they also played a lot of games.
“Coming back from an injury is clearly different, because of the intensity, the adjustment doesn’t wait for you. Up front, it’s super intense paints, a top sprint, pass, pass, pass and that we can’t replace. “[The players] there, it’s tough.
“I know we had Dannsy [Jayden Danns] on the bench, but we didn’t know we had to bring him [to the team] because of the two conditions. With Diogo [Jota], we only knew two days ago [about his injury] and with Cody [Gakpo] today really.
“So it’s not a game for an 18-year-old kid anymore and [James] Tarkowski and [Jarrad] Branthwaite kill you in those conditions and that doesn’t help. So, a lot of things came together [and] It’s not the right time, I’ll admit.
“I’d sit here, win 4-0, borrow and look for the next game. Like I said, the task is to win football matches and the more you win, the more success you get. At the moment we haven’t won enough to take advantage of the season, so we’d better start winning again.
Klopp also believes Liverpool want a “crisis” at Arsenal and City to finish the season as Premier League champions.
“I get it, it’s part of the business, but I don’t know why I have to answer that question; you can read it clearly in the table,” Klopp said.
“So do I deserve to say that we are still fully involved now?We want a crisis at [Manchester] City and Arsenal, and we want to win football games, because if now they start wasting all the games and we do what we did tonight, nothing will change. And we’re not in the Champions League either, so we deserve to play better football.
“You can see we’re under pressure in front of goal, you can see it. It was a long time ago, but I blame [Manchester] United a little bit; There are so many opportunities and you play really well, but you don’t take advantage. “anything in return. It’s bad.
“Since then, we’ve been creating, but every once in a while we don’t score enough and that doesn’t help. It’s not that in a scenario like that, you don’t score and just think, “Oh, whatever?”Don’t act like you’ve scored 15 goals in the last two games or whatever. You can see it and it’s a problem.
“That’s the way it is, you have to fight in those moments, it’s never been any other. People have already asked me about mindset. There are other aspects to the mentality. It’s not an attitudinal challenge. Guys want; Nobody does anything like that. That’s on purpose.
“My task is to put them in a scenario where they feel confident to do it. With that component, I’m guilty of everything that happened tonight, so it’s not that I feel good. But that’s obviously the most complicated component of football, and at the time it didn’t work and now we have to keep trying.
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