Jurgen Klopp has highlighted how stellar talents such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are not immune from the lack of confidence affecting Liverpool.
The Reds’ underwhelming start to the season continued at the weekend with a 3-3 Premier League draw at home to Brighton and Hove Albion, in which they fought back from 2-0 down to lead 3-2 only to concede an equaliser to Seagulls’ hat-trick hero Leandro Trossard.
Klopp believes Liverpool ’s inability to hold on to their advantage was a sign of the brittle self-belief caused by having gained only four wins in 10 competitive games this term.
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And he cited Ronaldo’s ongoing woes at Manchester United and the issues suffered by Messi during his first year at Paris Saint-Germain as evidence of what can happen when confidence levels dip.
“People can ask how could it happen that these players are not full of confidence?” said the Reds boss. “Do you think Cristiano Ronaldo at this moment is top of his confidence levels? He was for ages the best player in the world and now it is not going his way and it is not exactly the same.
“That happens to all of us. Lionel Messi played last season where it was not exactly the same because these kind of things are really important to all of us and you have to work for it, you have to do and to take the little things to take a step in the right direction and be really ready for the moment when it is back and that is what we are doing.
“It is not that we are without confidence but being 2-0 down is not good for confidence and being 3-2 up is usually really good but you could see with the first attack they had we pretty much gave them after 3-2 it was still pretty much an open game.
“That is how it happens, especially collectively. In individual sports maybe you can fight yourself through it but in a team sport we all have to do it together and that makes it a bit more complicated.”
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