Jurgen Klopp delivered an impassioned response to suggestions his Liverpool team is at the end of its cycle, saying the time for that judgement will come at the end of the season.
The Reds have endured a largely miserable campaign to date and having taken just 16 points from a possible 36, they currently languish as low as ninth, 15 points behind Premier League leaders Arsenal and eight adrift of Newcastle United, who currently occupy fourth in the division.
Back-to-back defeats against Nottingham Forest and Leeds United have soured the mood after successive home victories over Manchester City and West Ham United and an injury-hit squad have looked exhausted at times this term, just five months after falling narrowly short of an unprecedented quadruple at the end of last season.
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Asked if he believed this current crop of Liverpool might be in steady decline, Klopp said he understood the question but said the time for such calls can only be made at the end of the campaign.
"We are obviously all out there, and we do the job in public," Klopp, whose team host Napoli in the Champions League on Tuesday night, said. "But I think the judgement for this should come later on in the season, or maybe at the end. If you say that's it for this group of players, or whatever, or for this manager, I don't think that's 100 percent fair at this moment, to judge the team or the squad, because we never had them available.
"We miss players, especially now up front, we miss top quality which is not helpful. With the amount of games we have, we would usually make changes, but we cannot do that. We had a very similar situation in midfield for a long time already, so we had it pretty much everywhere.
"Even if it's unfair, it's fine. It's normal, it's our life and it's absolutely fair to ask these questions. But we have to answer that later on. We are all out there to be judged, manager, players.
"That's how life is in professional football. But we cannot change it. If you want to get out of something, first of all you have to go through it, and that's what we are doing. Yes with some highlights, but with some blows as well. We saw that recently.
"You can judge single moments and say, 'oh my God'. The second [Leeds] goal, I still wake up at night. But there's a reason why it happened. You can see that the boys wanted to win the game. That's actually the message from that situation, instead of defending the draw.
"We didn't want to have a throw-in for Leeds so they could play the time down. We don't close the centre because we expect to win the ball, and in the end from outnumbering Leeds in three different situations, we end up with a one-versus-two in the box.
"We expect more from ourselves, the boys expect more, I expect more from them. But we have to make sure that we get there with steps. We had them, the [Leeds] goalie had an exceptional game. You have to work on that and use that as well. That's the challenge at the moment. Avoiding the mistakes and keeping the good stuff."
Klopp added: "It was never a quick fix, and now it looks like it's not a quick fix, but we will not stop fighting. I didn't read anything but probably everything will be judged about me now, which is absolutely fine. When people look at me and say he looks tired or whatever. I'm not. I cannot give that excuse.
"My job is not only being here when the sun is shining, and somebody gives us a trophy. My job is to be there when we have to go through a really rough period as well, and I will do that, with all I have, and even more if possible. I'm ready to play against Napoli, but I didn't play against Leeds, physically. Now we have to find 11 to start and give them a proper fight.
"In a situation where you say historically Liverpool should beat Napoli, this is the third time we had them here in my time. It was never an easy game. We won one, a very important one, and the other one was a draw. It was always tough and this year especially so, but we are already through in the group, which is positive, and now let's make something special out of this game.
"We know the size of the pitch. We have to win challenges, and the whole thing starts with winning the first challenge. Celebrate it in the stands and on the pitch, not by running around, just by feeling it. That's the first step in the right direction, and then go from there.
"I'm ready for that, and the people after the [Leeds] game gave me the sign that they are ready for it too. It was not the longest lap of appreciation we ever had, but when we hear the people singing you realise it is really special and let's go from here. It's a rough moment, no doubt about it, and nobody is flying here like everything is great, but there's only one way to face it. Go for it. That's what we will do."
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