‘We’re still in title race’

JURGEN Klopp insisted it is too early to write off Liverpool despite their stuttering title hopes suffering another setback. But the frustrated Liverpool boss, right, admitted his side must improve if they are to take anything from their crunch clash with Manchester United after the international break. Klopp’s team are seven points behind leaders Manchester City after being forced to settle for a 1-1 draw at Newcastle. It is one win in seven now in all competitions and the Reds once again looked vulnerable at the back. Klopp said: “They got one chance and scored. That doesn’t feel too fair. If you don’t help yourself no one else helps you.

“I cannot talk about our football and the gap between us and other teams. We have our hard moment and other teams will have their hard moment.

“It looks like we are not far away from a real challenger. We don’t have to think about other teams and we will close the gap. We are in a quite good shape and in a quite good situation.

“There are different ways to get one win in seven. You can play really bad and lose a lot of games or you play more than a few games really, really good.

“In most of the games we were the better side but a few chances are enough for the opponent to score and we need a lot more, and in the end we have had the same number of goals. That has happened too often in the last few weeks. The only alternative for us is to carry on.”

Toon manager Rafa Benitez, left, declared himself happy with 10 points from the opening seven matches to leave Newcastle in the top half of the table.

“A point at home is something I don’t normally like,” he said. “Nevertheless it’s a point and we did well against a very good side who are full of attacking options.”