It ended Hull City 2-0 Liverpool. Who would have thunk it?
Liverpool's poor run of form continued with a defeat by Hull at the KCOM Stadium on Saturday afternoon as the Reds are yet to pick up a single victory in the Premier League since the turn of the year
It would appear Klopp can't work out why team is struggling against weaker teams as yet. This miserable defeat delivers a major blow to even their Champions League hopes.
But Jurgen Klopp insists his players' attitude is not to blame for Liverpool's continued slump against the so-called lesser sides – but admits he can see why there are suggestions to the contrary.
The home side took the lead when Alfred N'Diaye bundled in following a mistake from Simon Mignolet. Sadio Mane came close to equalising in the second half but Eldin Jakupovic tipped his header wide. Philippe Coutinho also missed a golden opportunity to draw his side level after slicing his close range shot.
Hull sealed victory, 10 minutes from time, came when Oumar Niasse slotted in after Andrea Ranocchia's pass.
The Reds' embarrassing 2-0 defeat at Hull was their fourth of the campaign, with Burnley, Bournemouth and Swansea also taking full points off Klopp's side.
Despite remaining unbeaten against the traditional top six sides so far this season, Liverpool now find themselves with a real battle to qualify for the Champions League.
This defeat continues a run of no league win this calendar year, ending any faint hopes of challenging for the Premier League.
But despite the chastening defeat, Klopp has defended the mentality of his players, denying there is a problem with raising their game against smaller teams.
“I don't know. I don't think it's attitude,” Klopp said. “All football performances are a mixture of everything. Confidence, attitude, readiness, passion, a lot of things.
“I have to watch the game again, I have to see to understand more what's the reason, especially for the first half, because I think again it was not the first time in the season we have put ourselves under pressure. In the second half, we reacted, yes we did – if we didn't, that would have really been a thing.
“We put them under pressure, we could have scored, but still then, if we win today 2-1, I'm still angry about the first half. 100%. I said to you a few times, I'm really interested in the performance, I'm really interested in results too, but I'm really interested in performance because you can build on performance. We had a good performance this week and obviously we didn't build on it, it's obvious.
“We will and have to take all the criticism from everywhere, you can say whatever you want probably, most of the things are right in this moment. Even though we have to change it immediately.”
Yet despite backing his wounded stars after the defeat to the Tigers, he admitted it would look like they were struggling to perform against clubs battling against relegation to outsiders.
“We have to take everything,” he added. “If you see it like this, I can understand. You have a view from outside, even when I am inside, and I don't want to give the answer now because I don't think so. But it looks from outside that it is.
“We have the record we have against these teams, the other record against these teams, I know the boys, I see them every day, they don't show any of this during the week but I understand you can see it from the outside like this.
“So we have to give the answer on the pitch. We produce our problems by ourselves most of the time. Our mistake, my mistake, whoever, we have to show it's not like this but we cannot show it today anymore.”
Liverpool will face Tottenham next week in a fixture crucial to their hopes of finishing in the top four.
Klopp concedes his side cannot put their record against the lower sides right against one battling at the top end of the table, but still expects an improved performance.
Hull City's Oumar Niasse (centre) celebrates scoring his side's second goal of the game during the Premier League match at the KCOM Stadium, Hull. Danny Lawson/PA Wire.
He said: "In a few days we have another opportunity to play football, even then we can show we are ready for other games as Tottenham are a top team in the league, it would make sense in this game.
“We have to prove the other thing later in the season.”
It worked for the first 4 months of the season. Our bad patch coincided with losing Coutinho, Matip & Lallana to injury. So fatigue can't be blamed because these players are just returning to fitness after injury & missed most of December & some of January.
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