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Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp said that his team’s loss to Burnley 1-0 at Anfield on Thursday was a “big blow to the face,” but he took full responsibility.
The “Reds” won their first Premier League title in 30 years last season, but they retreated significantly this season, six points behind leaders Manchester United, and have not achieved any victory in the last five matches.
And it seemed that Liverpool were moving at a steady pace on December 19, when they beat Crystal Palace, 7-0, but have not won any meeting since then.
Klopp told BBC Sport, “It is difficult, and it is not easy to explain .. These boys are not the type who thinks after (winning) 7-0 that we will follow this path. They worked hard tonight and that did not happen.”
“If something doesn’t work, you have to make a bigger effort … It wasn’t easy to lose that match and it did,” he added.
“If I’m sitting here now, losing to Burnley and not scoring in the last four matches and talking about the title race, how ridiculous would that be?”
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What went wrong with Liverpool?
Liverpool’s last home defeat came 1,370 days ago by Palace in April 2017, but a late penalty kick by Ashley Barnes completely changed the situation in his match with Burnley.
It was their first defeat in the league at Anfield in 69 matches.
Despite the absence of injured defenders Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez, Liverpool’s problems are at the other end of the field, where they usually have high quality.
Since Sadio Mane scored in a 1-1 draw against West Brom on December 27, Liverpool have fired 87 shots on target in the Premier League without scoring, including 27 against Burnley, despite their 4-1 win over Aston. Villa in the FA Cup.
Despite this success in the cup, they have failed to score in their last four league matches, with two 0-0 draws and two 1-0 losses, and coach Klopp has not spent that long without registering his team since 2006, when he was Mainz coach.
Klopp, who left the stars Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino on the bench in the first 57 minutes against Burnley, told the BBC: “This is my fault … we have to make better decisions. We have to do the right things often.”
“These boys are able to do that, but after not registering for a while, confidence is waning,” he said.
“Confidence is like a small flower, it is clear that someone has stepped on it. At this moment, we have to find a new one and we will do it,” he added.
