After Liverpool were held to their fourth Premier League draw of the season by Brighton, Jurgen Klopp had a damning response to a question he was asked about the league table on Saturday.
It was perhaps Liverpool’s most disheartening performance of the campaign so far.
Having beaten Ajax to go into the international break on a high, supporters were brought back down to earth with another poor defensive display against the Seagulls.
Seven games into the season, the Reds are languishing in mid-table, having only amassed 10 points. They are 11 points behind leaders Arsenal, who they visit in their next Premier League encounter, with any hopes of a title challenge fading fast.
After the game, Klopp was asked if he is taking any notice of the table at this stage, and his response summed up the mood among most Liverpool supporters right now.
“For what reason? To feel even worse? I know we have 10 points, and that’s the reality,” he told BBC Sport.
“I don’t hide from that. We have to go through that together and we will.”
Klopp has a point. Is there any real point in looking at the table when the sole focus must be on Liverpool sorting out their own problems?
One thing is for sure, any hopes of challenging the likes of Man City again will soon be gone if the Reds continue to drop points at the current rate.
Despite fighting back from two goals down, the Liverpool boss admitted his side wouldn’t have deserved to beat Brighton, a team who he claims “always” cause the Reds problems.
“It would be a nice story if you can win this game,” he continued.
“Yes, not overly convincing, but a really strong opponent, in a completely different moment to us. And we always had problems against Brighton, a really good football team, they always really cause us problems.
“Most of the time we still won, but we were not much more convincing than we were today. Everyone probably forgets that, but yes, we have to do better.”
Let’s hope the boss is more happy to look at the league standings in the coming weeks.
