Jürgen: I see our progress, so it's easy for me to stay positive
Jürgen Klopp insists Liverpool must view Saturday's FA Cup fourth-round tie with Wolverhampton Wanderers as a next opportunity and put recent frustrations firmly behind them as they look to get back on track.
The Reds will go into the Anfield lunchtime contest after suffering EFL Cup disappointment at the semi-final stage when they were eliminated from the tournament by Southampton on Wednesday evening.
It means Liverpool have won just one of their seven fixtures so far in 2017, but Klopp remains positive about the progress that has been made and that is still to come.
He told his pre-match press conference: “Between these games we cannot do a lot [in training]. We played on Wednesday and play tomorrow, so yesterday was recovery, today is a kind of second-day recovery and tomorrow we play. That’s how it is and there are not a lot of things to do in training.
“But most of the things in football when you have quality, which we do, is about getting focus back on different things. What we have to do is stay concentrated and for me, it’s no problem to stay positive and to stay optimistic because I always see the progress. I speak about the mistakes too, even in public, and then you have another story to write, but I am really fine with the situation.
“I don’t like the results, but I see that we are really still fighting for each point, for each little victory, for each big success. That’s what we’re doing and the job we have to do. I’m absolutely more than OK and looking forward to the next opportunity tomorrow.”
LFCTV GO: Klopp's pre-Wolves press conference
Liverpool’s only victory so far this calendar year came in the FA Cup third-round replay at Plymouth Argyle and Klopp was asked whether the squad’s confidence has been impacted by recent results.
He responded: “How could the confidence be exactly the same after these results than after winning 10 games? That would be really strange, so of course, it changed, of course it has influence.
“Everything we do, we do it in public, and if we suffer a little bit, it looks like we suffer a lot – but it is not like this.
“It’s a little bit like building a house, you start building and are full of enthusiasm and think ‘Great, in half a year to one year I will live in this house in a wonderful surrounding!’ You start in the summer, the weather is good and everything works better. Then November is coming and you’re still not finished and now it’s difficult. In this moment, if you stop building then it makes not too much sense. You have to wait maybe sometimes for the rain to stop and all that stuff, but in the end you will live in a house when you stay on it.
“That’s how I understand it. Maybe the weather changed a little bit, but we are still building and we take all of these things that happened – it is not that serious, it is not a big problem, but sometimes a few little problems are enough.
“We have the next chance tomorrow and another on Tuesday, another one on Saturday, so that’s nice and I’m looking forward to it.”