Jurgen Klopp has dismissed suggestions his Liverpool team are “falling apart” after their season suffered another major setback.
And the Reds boss believes there will be no further new arrivals before the transfer window closes on Tuesday evening.
A 2-1 defeat at Brighton and Hove Albion on Sunday ended Liverpool’s defence of the FA Cup at the fourth round stage, with Klopp’s side having now won only three of nine games since the resumption of the season after the World Cup.
The winning goal from Kaoru Mitoma came from a set-piece after Andy Robertson was booked for a foul on Alexis Mac Allister. Fabinho had moments earlier been fortunate to escape greater censure when cautioned for a poor tackle on Evan Ferguson, while there were earlier claims Ibrahima Konate should have dismissed after a strong challenge on Mac Allister.
And asked if his Liverpool team were falling apart given the manner of their late capitulation, Klopp said: “I don’t think that happened. My job over the last couple of weeks has been pretty much to accept the questions I am asked and you can deep as dig as deep and left and right as you want.
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AS IT HAPPENED: Brighton 2-1 Liverpool
“We will not fall apart, I can tell you. If it looks like that, then I’m sorry.
“The Fabinho challenge I’ve only seen once. It didn’t look dynamic, but if it was then we could talk about a red card. It was not cool. Ibou, I didn’t really see in the moment, and Robbo it was late in the game, it’s nothing to do with falling apart, it’s frustration, it’s not right to do it.
“Against us teams get yellow cards constantly and nobody asks these questions, but for us we are not used to it as we don’t usually concede yellow cards. But imagine if the boys didn’t react at all.
“I don’t like it, it’s not the way to do it, but I’ll have to look at it a few times to judge it better. But I’m pretty sure the assessment (we are falling apart) is not right.”
After the game, Klopp was asked by beIN SPORTS whether there would be any more incomings this month to follow Cody Gakpo, to which he replied: “Nothing will happen in this transfer window. That’s all. All good.”
Andy Robertson, who had captained Liverpool for the first time, suggested the Reds had wanted a new start since the restart but have instead become “worse”.
And Klopp said: “It’s not 100% true but it’s not 100% wrong. Of course, we want a new start. When you come back from the World Cup break you want to go for it definitely, so far it didn’t happen properly, that’s true.
“That still means we have to keep working. There’s nothing else to do. There were some very good performances in the game which you have to build on, and that’s what we will do.”
Klopp, meanwhile, had praise for the Reds supporters who were again disappointed by the outcome on the South Coast.
“Probably a lot of Liverpool fans are in Brighton and have now seen us twice in two weeks,” said the Reds boss. “They were brilliant, absolutely brilliant again. Today we paid a little bit back, they saw us score a goal, they saw us have chances.
“It was better. In the end, one goal is deflected and the other is in the 94th minute. That’s a piece of the truth as well, we should not forget that. But we are still out and that’s the worst outcome of the game you can have. From here we can go, and we will.”
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