Jürgen Klopp's pre-Southampton press conference saw the manager reflect at length on Liverpool's recent form and ongoing priorities for the remainder of the season.

The Reds host the Saints in the second leg of their EFL Cup semi-final on Wednesday night, four days on from the disappointment of a Premier League defeat against Swansea City at Anfield.

As he looked ahead to the game, Klopp discussed the response he expects to see from his side, why everything is still to play for and how the players can grab the opportunities left in front of them.

Read on for a summary…

On whether Liverpool are still fighting on three fronts…

We fight in each game, that’s maybe the most important thing. Then we have to see what happens around. Of course, in cup competitions the target is to win the competition. In the Premier League, it’s probably the same but it’s not that easy to plan or whatever. In this case, if Chelsea win all their games – which they pretty much do – there is no chance for any other team. For us, it’s still absolutely important to finish the season as well as possible – whatever that means. We’ll see after the season. You can imagine we have the quality to fight for the Champions League, that’s what we should do. If we do this and we are then close enough in the decisive moment of the season, you can still fight for a little bit more. But in this moment, it’s nothing we have to think about or we should think about. We now have two games and then we play Chelsea, so that’s when I’ll think about Chelsea but not how we can get them or whatever. We fight for everything we are able to, that’s all.

On whether the team has lost any intensity recently…

Intensity is something you speak more about than we do. You see it pretty differently. It’s not about having 120km after the game – it’s about sprinting and about different things. I don’t know exactly if it’s a little bit less, but it’s again not the reason. Intensity was not the reason for the goals we conceded [on Saturday]. Against a deep-defending Swansea side, we created I don’t know how many chances. Even after 3-2, we shot three or four times inside the six-yard box, so that says everything. It’s not that we are searching for intensity and if that’s not there, we cannot win. No, we have different ways to win football games. We only have to do the right thing in the right moment; if we have to defend, we have to defend all together, if we have to attack, we have to attack all together. We have to create chances together, we have to defend set-pieces together and all that stuff. If we would have done everything at our best, we would have more points, 100 per cent. That’s clear. But I don’t think it’s about intensity. It happened, because of reasons. We know them – it’s not that we have to discuss them in public, but a few things we know and now we have to show that we learned from them.

LFCTV GO: Klopp's pre-Southampton press conference

On whether the 1-0 aggregate score against Southampton changes the approach on Wednesday…

I think I have played Southampton the most of all Premier League teams; we played them last year [in the League Cup]. We have played them twice again and they changed a little bit. Southampton are a football-playing side, [but] against us they always defended pretty deep. That’s kind of a sign of respect, I would say, they think that’s the way to defend us. But, for us, it changes nothing really. In Southampton, after the game we knew it was not a good game from us. But probably both managers were frustrated, both because of the result. In this game they had chances to do it more clearly. Not because of possession – their counter-attacks were good and in different moments they were really clear in the situation and we didn’t defend it well. It was only a 1-0 and that’s no different for us, 0-0 or 1-0 is no different. If we would have been down 3-0 we would have to think about a few things. But it is only 1-0 and so still everything is possible for us.

On whether the amount of games in January has caused mental fatigue…

It’s not important. The things are like they are. Intense is intense – it was and you know it. You had no day off, but you did not have to run! It’s a difference, if you have physical things to do or not. I know it because I did both. Now I’m doing more your job than the boys’ job. That costs energy and that’s normal for all the teams. You need, in different situations, a little bit of luck. We can speak a lot about different things. Did we have luck in different games? Did we score offside goals and nobody saw it? No. Have we [had] lucky ref decisions on our side? No. That’s all the truth. Do I have to think about it? No. Did we play really, really, really good football until the end of last year? Yes. Did we lose Philippe Coutinho on November 26 and, a few days later, Joel Matip, two of the best players of the season until now? Yes. Is this lucky? No. Did we cope with the situation? Yes. There are a lot of things, but of course it’s intense for every team. We don’t sit back and look for excuses. What we need is to fight, that’s how it is.

In the good moments, this team is still able to play wonderful football and we did it in the Swansea game – a few of the best minutes maybe of the season were after we were 2-0 down, it was really good. That’s all we have to do, don’t think about why we lost this or that and all that stuff. We are responsible for our situation, that’s what we feel. If somebody can change it, then we can do it. Everything is still OK. I know, I can feel it around us, it’s not that positive anymore. Maybe that’s normal too. So our job is to bring everybody back on track. I expect again, because it’s a night game at Anfield, an outstanding performance from the crowd would be an unbelievable help. The first half against Swansea was maybe not the most exciting game in the world, but this is the job we have to do. We cannot be responsible for excitement alone. If the other team defends deep, then they defend deep. And if the other team defends deep, you cannot create a chance second by second by second, that’s not possible. Even Albert Einstein would have said ‘not possible’.

You have to do this in a patient way. It was really quiet. No blame. We have to learn. I saw it in the body language of my team. Half-time was positive because we had three or four chances and Swansea had no part of the game. They came out, played one long ball and it was like ‘Oh, what happens now?’ After 2-0 down and we were getting offensive, then the crowd was there and everything changed. Then we conceded the third goal. That makes no sense but it happened. Does this mean from now on we should only think about the third goal against Swansea? No. We have a lot of opportunities. We have an unbelievably big number of games. If we win from now on each game, everybody sits here and smiles, even if we cannot become champions because Chelsea win enough to do it. That’s how it is. Life is no guarantee, only a big opportunity. The football season is exactly the same – you don’t have guarantees. Everybody wants it. But we have the opportunity to do our best every day and my job is to tell the boys this and make sure they know about it. You can be sure I do this. Then, let’s fight again, this time Southampton at home.