TOUGH AT THE KLOPP

Three defeats in a week but Liverpool boss comes out fighting: ‘We’ve actually played a very good Premier League season with a lot to go for’

IT took a while but Jurgen Klopp eventually came out fighting.

The trademark animation had been missing, the good-humoured aggression absent but Klopp was finally back on the front foot.

How was he coping with the toughest spell of his Liverpool career and the scrutiny and doubts that have come with it?

“We lost the last three games and I don’t want to ignore that but I can’t put it each morning in my back-pack and say it’s still here. It has to be gone, it’s over,” said the German.

“We’ve actually played a very good Premier League season – not the best of all the teams – but it is still a very good season with a lot to go for.”

Klopp is being disingenuous when he refers to the last three games.

This is a deeper rut, a solitary win in eight January fixtures, the scruffy victory at lowly Plymouth. A collision with a Chelsea team that have become spiky rivals over recent years presents the perfect chance to snap out of it and lift spirits in an instant.

He admitted: “We haven’t given the crowd a lot to celebrate over the last few games but now is another chance.

“And it is the right game, a floodlit game at Anfield. It should be an outstanding atmosphere for a game against the outstanding side in the Premier League at this moment.” But even though he was happy to acknowledge a Liverpool win would open up the title race, it is noticeable Klopp’s clear, short-term ambitions now appear less grand.

They are certainly less grand than when he wondered how “annoying” it must have been for Chelsea to win 13 games on the spin and still find Liverpool only six points adrift on New Year’s Day.

Since then, Liverpool have taken two points from three matches and now trail Chelsea by 10. It is no wonder, or no coincidence, Klopp is now talking primarily in terms of a Champions League place and reminding fans that his empire will take time to build.

He said: “As long as we really believe in a long-term project while winning anything we can get in the short term, that’s what matters.

“The main thing is to come into the position where we are the team.

“At the moment, we are one of