JÜRGEN Klopp insists that Liverpool have no issue overcoming weaker sides ahead of this weekend’s trip to Hull City.
The Reds have lost to Burnley, Bournemouth and Swansea this season, and have slumped to draws against Southampton, West Ham and Sunderland.
However, Klopp believes these results are not out of the ordinary for any side and his players have no problems in these games.
He said: “We won a lot of games against these kind of teams. We lost three against those teams that you would call ‘weaker’.
“If you want to pick out these three games then I think Burnley was pretty special, very early (in the season), it’s almost not allowed to put it in that bunch of games.
“Bournemouth was very special: we did really well and I don’t know what happened there — we gave it away but we did everything nearly perfect until a specific point.
“Even Swansea was not good but it was that we had no chances.
“Even when you are a perfect side, which we are not, then obviously you will lose football games, that’s why nobody wins 100 per cent of games in a season.
“But I think we’ve proved often enough that we know the way to do it, the problem is that it not always works.
“We are working with human beings and things like this happen but for me the most important thing is that we know how to play them — now we have to show it all the time.”
Klopp also singled out Hull for praise following their improvement in performances under new manager Marco Silva.
Silva’s side go into Saturday’s game having picked up an impressive point at Old Trafford on Wednesday.
And Klopp believes Hull don’t resemble a side that sit second from bottom of the Premier League, given their improved performances in recent times.
He added: “Anyone who saw Hull against Manchester United should be really impressed by the way they’re playing.
“Hull are still second from bottom but when you saw them playing I couldn’t see it so that shows how difficult the job is to do.”
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Pics: David Rawcliffe-Propaganda Photo
We can beat the lower teams if we mix it up a bit, if we just pass it patiently, in front of them then it will not work and we always run a risk of them hitting us on the counter with one faulty pass, lets create some fear and panic by putting the ball in their box and see how they cope with it, if we can’t pass it quickly around them because they are too compact then lump it, long ball whatever, shoot on sight around the 18 yard box and see if we get a deflection or penalty off a hand, it may look desperate but it is better than passing it sideways and around without success for 90 mins, whatever it is just find a way.
Hull also carry a serious threat on the counter and on the wings, so we will have to watch the spaces left by our overlapping full backs, the pressing against Swansea was like the pressing in Klopps first game in charge we just run at anyone with the ball and got turned easily and wasted a lot of energy, subsequently the pressing became more intelligent, so I hope we reset the press to the intelligent one.
The other quality we need to acquire is resilience in defending corners and set pieces, when teams get a corner or free kick around our box they celebrate like they won a penalty, its about time we slam that window in their faces, at the other end of the pitch we can’t convert corners and free kicks for toffee, corners especially, we get them like bubbles at Upton Park, but just like bubbles its just a waste.
Lets go get the three points now.
Bring them on. It was our last game against Hull that kick-started our season.