When they play Brighton in the FA Cup’s fourth round on Sunday, ninth-place Liverpool will travel to the location of a previous humiliation. Reds manager Jurgen Klopp: “It takes effort to return there. Everyone could have completed it over the past seven years if it had been simple. We are working toward that.
Jurgen Klopp has seen signs of progress from Liverpool in their past two games but insists hard work and time are needed to recapture their previous highs.
The Reds endured an agonising 3-0 loss against Brighton earlier this month, which has dropped them to ninth position in the Premier League. However, Liverpool gained a cup win at Wolves and a 0-0 draw with Chelsea before returning to the Amex for a fourth-round FA Cup match on Sunday, which helped them regain some confidence.
Virgil van Dijk, Diogo Jota, Roberto Firmino, and Luis Diaz are among the injured key players still sidelined by Klopp, who is well aware of the difficult road ahead of his team before they can return to the heights that saw them contend for four trophies last season.
We are well prepared to work through that from here in this place, he continued.
“I wish that everything would be simple once more and that we would reach the season’s finals. But despite the fact that not everything I’ve gone through has been pleasant, the one thing I do know is that your high moments will be better if you conduct well and clearly during your down points.
“You must be respectful, exhibit the proper behaviour, and criticise without losing your mind. Once you get through it, there will be more than just light at the end of the tunnel—there will also be championships and prizes. Everything is there. not now.
“Time is the only issue you have in life; nobody wants to devote time to it. While the circumstances are not ideal, I can still make good use of the framework from the previous two games.
Mohamed Salah must acquire a new style of play because of the erratic forward line he is playing in, according to Klopp.
The 17 goals the Egyptian international has scored this season are significantly below his previous totals at this point in a campaign, but his seven goals in 19 Premier League matches are still a career-high.
The front three has been different in each of Klopp’s previous three games, and this season, Salah, Darwin Nunez, and Luis Diaz—who would be considered Klopp’s ideal starting lineup—have played together for just 343 minutes.
Along with Nunez and Cody Gakpo, who joined from PSV Eindhoven at the beginning of the month, he will probably start the FA Cup fourth-round match at Brighton. One man arrived in the summer, and the other has played for Liverpool for little over five hours.
“Oh yes, it makes sense that he is in pain. The front three were well-drilled machines, and everything we did was clear “Klopp stated.
“Everyone is affected by that. That is obvious. It’s a specialised offensive play that takes a lot of effort and knowledge—knowledge that isn’t always obvious—to execute.
“You construct an impression of many of these things, such as your teammate’s location and the best place to pass the ball without looking.
Although that is not cool, we cannot just expect to play at our peak, win 5-0, and go on to the next game. Working hard is required.
“We can change things up in two or three weeks when a few more possibilities become available (more seasoned players Roberto Firmino and Diogo Jota are scheduled to make their injury recoveries).
“Cody is now a tremendously valuable asset for us; he acts as a link and can play both the wing and the centre.
“When Darwin plays there, he definitely goes in behind and is higher up. Even when Sadio (Mane) played at the position he was about to drop, we had never played with a nine before.
“That’s not Darwin’s game, he wants to have other balls at his feet and he is a real handful there. It is all good if they would all be in and we could build something, but we haven’t been able to do that yet.”
The league match against Brighton, according to Klopp, was a bit of a reality check.
The low point, when we were like, “OK, that’s not acceptable,” was the Brighton game, he said. “That was good for making 100,000 percent everyone aware of this truth,” he added.
“It takes effort to return there. Everyone could have completed it during the past five, six, seven, or whatever years if it had been simple. You need to experience this scenario once again. We are striving towards it. Real forward motion was evident, in my opinion.
Klopp urged his players to fully commit to their pressing tactics and stop Brighton from utilising the broad spaces that were available for them a few weeks ago as they prepare for Liverpool’s return to the south coast in order to avoid suffering another embarrassing defeat.
When considering the starting lineup, Klopp remarked, “That must be my first concern. How can we start, how can we get stability into the situation, and then we can go from there?”
“We cannot sit back and let them come because we are a pressing team. No, we can’t. But we have the authority to choose the size of the pitch, which is what we didn’t do.
“You may recall the Brighton game. I have never seen a field as large as the one in Brighton. It was awful. The only reason [Liverpool’s defence] slipped was a lack of opposition in the front or in the middle of the field.
“That was the size of the pitch that Brighton used. How many balls did we give them, how many counterattacks did they have? Brighton performed admirably that day, but there were other instances where we played a significant role in their favourable circumstances.”
