Klopp: We're not using Sadio Mane absence as any excuse
Jürgen Klopp believes it is too simplistic to suggest the loss of Sadio Mane has been the sole contributing factor to Liverpool's current form as he insisted his side are ready to show they've learned from recent mistakes.
The Reds have won just one of their six fixtures so far in 2017, with that coming in the 1-0 victory at Plymouth Argyle in the FA Cup third-round replay last week.
More recently, Swansea City claimed a 3-2 result at Anfield on Saturday to ensure Liverpool suffered a first home defeat of the campaign – and a first loss in L4 in almost exactly a year.
Of those six games, Mane has been on Africa Cup of Nations duty with Senegal for five of them, but Klopp insists that is not the only reason for their fluctuating form.
The boss told his pre-Southampton press conference: “The problem is more in that we missed Sadio, we missed Phil [Coutinho] for a long time, we missed Joel Matip and that is really difficult.
“We did really well in most of the games and as much as I like Sadio, it’s not allowed that we think a few problems we’ve had in the last games are because we’ve missed him. It is not how football should be, it is not how life should be.
“In the games we didn’t have the result, we made other mistakes. It is not that we’re not scoring enough goals because we scored two against Swansea and two against Sunderland, although Sadio was still involved [in that game] on both sides! But we scored enough goals to win the games.
“I know you [the media] have spoken a lot about defence, but you always speak about [individual] players – I speak about the whole defensive work of the team, so that’s different. If it would be as easy as you buy one new player and all the problems are solved, then why would I be silly enough not to do it? It is not like this.
“We have to improve still, that’s what we know about. I knew about the problems we had after the Christmas period, and that was really disappointing, but before the Swansea game I could see we are already back on the right track and could see the freshness coming back in training and all stuff, but then we had that game and that wasn’t too nice.
“But it’s a part of life – and especially part of the life of a football manager. We had a long meeting after the game. I’m ready for the rest of the season.
“We’ve done enough good things, we’ve made enough mistakes and bad things, so now we can show we learned from all of it. It’s still intense and with the injuries we had, it was difficult to come through a very, very intense period. Now we are through, pretty much, and now we should get the benefit of it.”
LFCTV GO: Klopp's pre-Southampton press conference
While Mane is set to miss a handful of further games for Liverpool due to Senegal’s progression in the Africa Cup of Nations, the ranks have been bolstered by the returns of Joel Matip, Philippe Coutinho and Jordan Henderson recently.
Klopp feels the loss of several senior players to injury at the same time did impact upon the Reds’ performance levels.
Asked about the importance of being able call upon Matip once again, the manager continued: “It’s very important, but it is more important to have him available – it’s not always important to have him on the pitch.
“Of course, it’s good because he is a really good player, but he was injured for six weeks. The other players had to play nearly all the time, that’s more the problem in this time. Not that Joel cannot play all of the time – he should not, actually. We should have the opportunity and possibility to change a little bit this or that position.
“He was not available so we had to cope with it and most of the time we did well, but obviously we are not happy about the last few results – they were not good enough. But I understand football in a different way; the final mistake in the game, sometimes it’s the goalkeeper, sometimes it’s the defender, sometimes it’s somebody else, but most of the time there are seven or eight players involved – that’s the defending I talk about.
“Everybody is responsible for everything and if you avoid this pass then your teammate cannot make the last mistake. That’s how we understand it, so it is not about one player or something.
“It’s clear what we’ve done wrong and we really have to do better.”