‘Not right’: Jurgen Klopp completely rejects one criticism about his Liverpool side in wake of defeats

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Jurgen Klopp addressed recent criticism of his Liverpool side in a Monday press conference. The boss rejects one claim, however.

Jurgen Klopp knew he’d face intense questioning on Monday after Liverpool lost again at the weekend. This time it was a 2-1 defeat against Leeds United at Anfield – arguably a new low in a disappointing season.

That’s now back-to-back defeats in the Premier League, in fact. Both came against relegation-threatened teams, too, and that shines an incredibly bright spotlight on Liverpool. What exactly is going wrong?

Klopp was open to criticism, of course – he can’t really avoid it. But he does reject one common claim about his team. He refuses to say that the team lacks fight.

“To say we didn’t fight against [Nottingham] Forest is still not right because you lose a game and that’s how it is,” said Klopp. “You lose a game and then people tell you, ‘You didn’t try hard enough.’

“You can fight obviously in a different way. Against Forest, we ran against a wall, a deep-defending wall, and conceded a completely unnecessary goal. Yes, we could have played better, we could have done a lot of things better – but the boys fight.

“And this is not a game where you can outrun the opponent because you have the ball all the time and run against a wall, so that’s a different thing. The fight is there.

“Do we do it always with 100 per cent? For that you need the full conviction about what you are doing as well and you need the full physical ability to do that.”

Jurgen Klopp on Liverpool criticism

There are a few things to unpack here. Firstly, Klopp is absolutely right about ‘fight’ being a common and often incorrect go-to for money. The team lost, thus they didn’t try hard enough.

That’s rarely, if ever, the actual case. Confidence, preparation and tactics all play a far bigger role in success and failure. Liverpool have a case for all three negatively affecting them this season. The idea that the players simply aren’t trying hard enough is pretty much always a ridiculous accusation and a massive oversimplification.

But it is perhaps a little telling that Klopp went back to the Forest game when rejecting the notion – not the most recent defeat against Leeds. Does that say anything? We’re not sure he’d kick up such a fuss about lack of fight if he was genuinely concerned with it against Leeds but it is interesting.

On the whole, though, he’s right. Liverpool aren’t struggling because of a lack of trying – that would take a dramatic change of personality throughout the entire squad to be the case. It’s a hell of a coincidence that they all decided not to try at the same time, if it is the case.

More likely is that Liverpool are rattled as their gameplan isn’t working for the first time in six years. They can’t adapt mentally and mistakes occur as a result. Formation changes – and a string of injuries to key players – then makes it even more difficult to adapt.

Liverpool will be back eventually but they need to click together, mentally and tactically, once again. Hopefully, that doesn’t take much longer – but we said that a month ago.