Boss: We can't afford bad individual performances
Jürgen Klopp has admitted Liverpool will struggle to win Premier League games if individual performances such as those seen at Leicester City on Monday are reproduced regularly.
But the Reds boss is confident his players can build on the success of their last Anfield outing - a 2-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur - when they return to familiar surroundings on Saturday to take on Arsenal.
Klopp's team have been plagued by inconsistency in 2017, and suffered a sixth defeat from the 12 fixtures they have contested this year as they were downed by the Foxes at the King Power Stadium earlier this week.
When asked if his players were performing to the level he expected, the German replied: "In the Tottenham game, yes, in the Leicester game, no. That's how it is.
"I said it because it's the truth, the Leicester game was in this specific way special - there were really a lot of bad individual performances. That was the problem.
"If we have that many players not on their usual level, then each Premier League game will be difficult, especially this game. We lost because of our performance, that's all.
"It's a week ago, we have to do better, there were a few other players who have a lot of space to improve from this game.
"It was not last year that we played really good, so we have to use the one thing and to use the other thing to grow as confident as possible in this game.
"It's Anfield, it's our stadium, the last game we played here was outstandingly good, fantastic actually. We want to have this feeling again and that's what we're working for."
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It was also put to Klopp that a lack of competition for places might be one of the reasons behind the Reds' recent malaise.
But the manager insisted he has no interest in putting too much pressure on his players by declaring their place under threat, and explained that injuries had denied him the opportunity to rotate more regularly.
He added: "Do I really believe in putting people under pressure to perform on their highest level? No.
"When I speak about competition, I don't really think about that you put them under this kind of pressure. I only think that because of the quality of another player, you have to deliver.
"'If I don't perform, then he can', that's how it is. We have a few injuries - too much, 100 per cent - we have not a lot of opportunities to change and if you win then it's easier to change things than if you lose.
"The players who played Leicester, if I say now 'Come on, we change it in three or four positions', then I take them out of responsibility and I put it on the shoulders of other players and say let's see if you can do [it].
"It's always good to have the choice because then you can react on shape and form and all that stuff that you see in training.
"At this moment, we don't have that big a choice in a few positions, for different reasons. For example, Ragnar Klavan was really ill, I said it already, that's why Lucas played against Tottenham and he played outstandingly good, a really good game.
"[If people] ask why a No.6 is playing centre-half, the answer is because he did it really well in a lot of games and it makes sense.
"Did he perform outstandingly good against Leicester? He didn't. That's the situation, there are always reasons for it. It's not that I don't want to change or things like this.
"A week is not very long but it's long enough to have different [issues], like when the medical department comes in and [says] he cannot train [or] he's a little bit ill.
"That's what we have to react on. No excuse, all the players were absolutely fit on the pitch against Leicester, but we didn't perform. But I thought we [should] try again."