Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Klopp keeping faith in his side
JURGEN Klopp is confident Liverpool can challenge at the top end of the Premier League despite seeing another two points slip from their grasp at Newcastle.
Yesterday’s 1-1 draw at St James’ Park left the Reds in seventh place in the table, already seven points adrift of top two Manchester City and Manchester United after as many games.
However, Klopp is very confident his team is on the right track and will continue to improve as the season unfolds.
He said: “I can talk about our football and the points we get for it, and then we talk about the gap between us and other teams. We have, obviously, our hard moments, other teams will have hard moments.
“We have had hard moments and we have to work.
“It looks like we are not far away from a real challenger, so if we do what we are good at and we can score more goals, then we will win games and we don’t have to think about other teams.
“We will close the gap, however big it is, and we will see where we end. But it’s all about our own situation, not t hinking about where others are.”
Liverpool took a 27th-minute l ead when Philippe Coutinho rifled a long-rang e effor t past keeper Rob Elliot.
However, their advantage lasted for just nine minutes when defender Joel Matip’s efforts to regain lost ground on Joselu saw him direct the ball against the Magpies striker and into the net.