Jürgen Klopp on Fulham clash, Chelsea analysis and more

In addition to providing an injury update on Ozan Kabak, Nathaniel Phillips and Ben Davies, the Reds boss reflected on the 1-0 defeat by Chelsea at Anfield and assessed their next fixture against Scott Parker’s Fulham.

Read his answers below…

On the analysis of the defeat against Chelsea and what he feels Liverpool must change to get more consistency…

First and foremost, it’s completely normal and absolutely OK that everybody has an opinion about it. If we go through that game, we had the situation with the offside Timo Werner goal and you cannot avoid counter-attacks when players like Timo are involved because of the speed he has. The general defending is about your own attack, you cannot wait with your last line when you have your own attack and then you theoretically lose the ball, and there will be counter-attacks. Teams who defend really deep will face counter-attacks, that’s how it is. The other situation, when we conceded the goal we had enough players behind the ball, it’s not that we were surprised from the counter-attack, it was not about the high last line in that moment. We had the players there, we were actually too deep in that moment in the box when Mason Mount finished the situation. So, in this case it was not about the line.

What was the other thing? Fabinho in midfield? Yeah, would be great. We had the problem that Nat Phillips, who played now together with Ozan couldn’t play so we had to make a decision: do we take now an unexperienced pairing on the pitch or do we take Fab? We decided for Fab. I understand completely you have absolutely different views on things but in the moment when we make decisions we make the decisions because we think they are the best.

On talking to Mohamed Salah after he was substituted…

I’m not even sure if this situation is now a reason for a proper talk about it, because there were different things. We are 1-0 down, that makes no player happy. You go off, you can react how you react in different ways because you are not happy about the general game. On top of that you get subbed, you are a striker, you think you should stay on the pitch, that’s all completely clear and not an issue. It’s just normal life. Apart from that, because you mention now Midtjylland, that’s so long ago, it was absolutely nothing. Mo is in a good mood, he scored goals after that. That’s all OK. These things are not our problem.

On whether the return of Diogo Jota can help the other forwards ‘raise their levels’…

We all have to improve, definitely. You only lose games when you have more potential than the results show. It’s all about the performance, yes, and that’s where we all have to improve. But Mo still has a great scoring record, but I’m sure everybody knows and he knows himself, even he could have scored more goals. But, again, Mo’s scoring record is not our problem. In general we have to improve, 100 per cent.

On his assessment of Fulham and his thoughts on Parker…

Great, absolutely great. Difficult getting relegated and getting promoted, which is already difficult enough. A big, big achievement. When you see them, I like that really. I thought it the other day, the way Brighton is playing, the way Fulham is playing, is really exceptional in this league. Yes, it’s tough to stay in but I think it’s a really good sign for England to see these young English managers. It’s really good and a good sign because they tried to stay in the league with two teams for whom it’s difficult. But they do it in a football way. I think both of them show really that they are ready for a big career. That’s good for English coaches in general I think.

If you now look at Fulham – difficult start and now meanwhile in the last few weeks, for sure they got more points than we got in the last few weeks. That says already everything. That will be a tough one. It’s a football-playing team, they have an incredible possession record for a team in that area of the table. They try their way and it looks like it will work out. A few months ago maybe it looked like it’s already decided which three teams will go down, and that’s now completely different. It’s all close again. Fulham lost [on Thursday]; I couldn’t see it yet – we have the analysis meeting after this press conference – but I saw a few pictures yesterday from the game and you saw really, not sure if dominant, but a very active Fulham side and Tottenham had to do everything to defend them. That’s what the job will be for us as well. I hope we can have a little bit more of the possession and can create more problems for them as well. But we have to be ready for a proper game because you shouldn’t make the mistake to judge Fulham because of their position in the table. You have to judge them because of the performance they are able to show. And that’s what we do.

On how he and the team tackle the current situation…

We adapt to the situation always. You cannot always adapt to the result or whatever that would mean, I don’t know exactly, but to the situation, to the players we have available, to the circumstances the players are in, the way we want to get stability, the way we have to create. Of course, we work on finishing as well, so there is always an awful lot to do. There is only little things you only can just let run because they work anyway.

The most important thing is, and I said it last night and I cannot change that now overnight, the thing we have to improve is our decision-making in decisive moments, that’s clear. That’s obvious, I think. With all the few good things we did last night, in the end, I’m not sure 100 per cent on numbers now, Chelsea had more shots on target than we had. Shots on target are not the sign, it’s the goals you score, but it’s a sign. I said it last night, a lot of things were really good but the last pass was not good enough and that killed these situations. We have to work on it and we do that, but in the end it’s football as well, it’s about creating a feeling in the game like a confidence or whatever.

If you are 1-0 down it’s different to being 1-0 up and that one situation brought us into the situation where we had to chase the game again – and against a quality side like Chelsea that doesn’t make life easier, especially if you then don’t use the situations you have. We know the big chances we had and if we use them then the whole game can change. If not, then not.

On whether Liverpool’s dip in form was ‘inevitable’ after the outstanding performances of the previous two seasons…

I don’t think so. Inevitable means unavoidable? That it goes constantly in one direction, I am not sure that’s possible or not. There are other teams in the world that did that, but you can only do that if your problems are not getting bigger than the solutions you can have. I think the most difficult league to stay on top of everything for a long period is England. It could happen and there is one team who maybe has everything for it – the team, obviously the players, the manager, the money and all these kind of things – it’s Man City. All the rest has to fight with all you have to get closer and when you are close enough, then maybe you can make what we showed last year. But there is a big difference between the situation we are in now and the situation which could have happened. Coming second or third or whatever in a year when it is not perfect for you I think, for everybody, is absolutely OK and you have the chance to go far in the cup competitions, you have the chance to go as far as possible in the Champions League and all these kind of things.

But our situation is different. I think we all agree it is a really strange one injury-wise and football is much more a rhythm game than maybe people might think. It means when you can rely on different things, when you can build on different things, then you can reach your personal best as a team. We never had that situation this year, that we really could build on something, because we had to change too much. That’s it, that’s the situation. That shows why it was clear it would be difficult for us from a specific point in the season on, but then of course the job you have to do then is to fight with all you have to get the results anyway. Maybe not with your absolute best football or whatever, but [get] the results anyway. That’s the point where we didn’t do well enough because we didn’t get results. In an average game you still can win it, or you can draw it or whatever, but we lost even games where we were actually good – and that’s of course absolutely the opposite of how it should be. We are very self-critical, we know that and we take and face all the criticism, that is absolutely OK. But it is still our situation and we cannot change the past, the only thing we can try to change is the near future.

On whether Salah ‘feels the responsibility of being the main goalscorer in the team’…

Absolutely possible of course, but I don’t think for him that’s kind of a pressure – I think he enjoys that, rather. It’s not about that. Mo’s goalscoring record is absolutely outstanding again, especially when you look at the consistency. Again, I said it, last night I could have changed other players as well. That’s true. It was more about who we bring on in that moment. In the situation when you make a decision like that, he looked, for me, like he felt the intensity. He probably saw it completely different and, again, that’s absolutely fine. That is not the most important thing in the world. Half an hour without Mo Salah, maybe that’s the reason why he can play on Sunday again and stuff like this.

We make these decisions in the moment and not with any thoughts in behind. The problem is only you have to explain it after the game, the day after the game and all these kind of things and you try to find a story. These kind of stories, so far, they didn’t happen. I cannot guarantee for the future of all time that it will never happen, but these kind of discussions we never had. It is completely normal, I make a decision, the boys accept it, nobody feels that he has nothing to do with the situation or that he is not responsible for it. I don’t do that, the players don’t do that, we all now came together to the top and we came together to the point here and we will sort it together. That’s our idea of it. I cannot not change a player just because it creates a story afterwards, I don’t even think about these kind of things in the moment – ‘What will that mean? Tomorrow they will ask this or that.’ It is just not like this. You do it because you think in the moment it’s right and you are allowed to judge afterwards if it was right, but it doesn’t change my decision anymore because I can’t do that.