Jurgen Klopp has revealed he held a frank talk with his Liverpool squad on Wednesday in a bid to arrest an alarming start to the season.
After underwhelming draws with Fulham and Crystal Palace, the Reds lost their first league game since late December when Manchester United won 2-1 at Old Trafford on Monday evening to condemn them to their worst start to a campaign for 10 years.
Reports that Klopp hauled his squad in on Tuesday as a result of that performance were inaccurate as the squad enjoyed their usual post-match day of rest, but the manager admitted he had to get some things off his chest when they reconvened on Wednesday.
"There [was] no discussion," Klopp said. "I was getting things off my chest. The good thing about this meeting is I feel much better after it. It is not that I shout at the players, not at all, it is about putting things in perspective, what we did well and what we didn’t do well.
"We live in a world where everything is always judged, everything is under the glass, but in the end only one thing is important and that is what we think about it ourselves. We cannot do things to please the outside world, to make crazy challenges and get a red card.
"We never were that and we will never be that. For us and for me it is clear what we have to do. I cannot go into detail but of course we talk about pretty much everything, especially the important things for us, and try to exclude the not so important stuff.
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"I’m 55 and they are 30. I got washed with all kinds of water in my life, highs and lows, and it is all about how you deal with it. You always have to question yourself of course and what you make of it.
"The situation changes constantly, the perception from outside changes constantly, the pressure gets bigger, it is never the same. I don’t want to leave the boys alone in a situation like this.
"It is just about showing perspective. Everything has to be new, sometimes just a reminder, to fix a specific point. There are a lot of things you can do. As a human being, even in a team sport, you deal with yourself first in a difficult situation but you don’t forget you have also 10 players around who can help and you can help them as well. It was a bit of a longer meeting, these kinds of meetings always are, and afterwards I felt better."
A school of thought behind Liverpool's poor start has been a hangover from the closing days of last term's quadruple chase when they missed out on a Premier League title by a single point to Manchester City before defeat to Real Madrid in the Champions League final in late May.
Klopp, though, dismissed suggestions that the disappointing end to an otherwise exceptional season is the root cause for the sluggish performances this time around.
He added: "That is not an excuse. That never crossed my mind. That season is gone. If you want to turn it around in the Champions League, now we know the group. If we want to turn around the league, we know the opponents.
"Even the League Cup we know the opponent now, so no hangover. Physically we had the season we had, we played 63 games plus internationals so maybe 70 games. Some players had for sure too many games and then only three weeks off, is that enough? Probably not but the boys are used to it.
"Again, it is the start not the finish or the middle part of the season. From all three parts - start, middle, end - I would say we are doing it a harder way than I would prefer but we don’t make our start bigger or worse than it is but we don’t think it is great.
"We really want and have to do better. This is the chance we have now. The last five years might have looked different but our supporters know if you want to support a club without any kind of drama or lows then you cannot choose Liverpool. Our people are used to that.
"This is the first proper fightback early in the season and it will take hopefully until the last day of the season, just us against the rest of the world let’s go."
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