Liverpool’s league campaign has been in free-fall since the World Cup break, with the Reds mustering just one win in their last six games. While some young players such as Harvey Elliott and Stefan Bajcetic have brought moments of brilliance to the side, some senior players look totally out of sorts and short on confidence.
Liverpool play Wolves at Molineux tomorrow and will hope a win and 3 points can start a run of momentum. The race for European football is far from over. And Klopp’s men need all the confidence they can get in preparation of their upcoming Champions League two-legged fixture against Real Madrid. Jurgen Klopp spoke to the media before tomorrow’s away clash with Wolves and urged his players to pick themselves up and climb out of the rut they have found themselves in.
“Self-pity is not allowed in these moments. We are human beings and know these moments when you think ‘Oh my God, everything is going against me’,” said the German.
“There’s only one person who can change that really and it’s yourself. These kinds of things can happen and will happen in the future as well, but it’s about limiting the time to get back on track.”
“We all see that some players didn’t exactly reach the level they reached for us consistently over four or five or six years. That’s not unusual, it happens to other players as well.”
Klopp then went on to point to the resurgence of Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford, who looked a shell of his former-self last season. The Englishman has been United’s standout player this campaign and has 29 goal contributions to his name in February. Things can change very quickly in football. Players who look broken can be reborn anew.
Klopp said, “One of the best examples ever probably will be Marcus Rashford. The season he had last year and the season he has this year, I’m not sure he can really explain it.”
“Erik ten Hag coming in, new boys, a different approach, of course (makes a difference) but it’s not as though Marcus didn’t want to deliver last year. Now he is flying. That’s how it goes. The times in between these two extremes we have to use and go through it and fight through it.”
“The team performances are obviously a summary of the individual performances, but the other way around it works as well: the individual performances are influenced massively by the team performance.
“That doesn’t change the view on the players in general but you have to make decisions for the moment for the line-up, and that’s maybe a bit more of a problem for the manager because when you realize it’s not only a little dip and it is going on longer, do we have alternatives?
“For the player it’s a situation which he will face during a long career. Not only once but probably two or three times. You have to get through this and the players I know, my players, they will go through that and show again how good they are.”
Klopp then mentioned Fabinho’s inconsistent form specifically and said, “We don’t have arguments on the pitch or the training ground. He knows that he is not flying and has to work his way back. In the moment it’s not clicking.”
Klopp seemingly wants to light a fire underneath his players, who are in desperate need of a spark.
