Although our boss Jurgen Klopp has refused to rule out Champions League qualification via a top four finish, he has told his players just to focus on rebuilding after the Southampton loss at the weekend.
“We can say we have to have more killer instinct in the first half or we have to play better in the second half,” said the German (via Echo).
“Both are true and both we will try in the future.
“Two things are important – we didn’t get the points and that’s not too good; on the other side, we saw how well we can play football, which we should not forget.
“” know the result is not what we wanted but we have to accept it this season, we have to take what we can get and not think always now the top four, ‘yes, no, perhaps, I don’t know’.
“Play football like we did in the first half, score goals and everybody will enjoy it and then everything is okay.
“We know things like this can happen, why should we now be out of the top four race completely because we lost at Southampton?”
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Klopp is currently in Tenerife with our non-international player as we they take in some sun and warm-weather training ahead of what will be a frenetic end to the season.
“Now (the players) are with their national teams so they have different things to do.
“The only thing that is important is that they come back healthy. We saw again we have a really good base and we’ll work again.”
While the loss the Southampton was bitterly disappointing, ultimately it is much better than Klopp is seeing our frailties now rather than at the start of next season. If we’d won seven of our last ten and ended up inside the top four, there would have been a temptation to think we only needed cosmetic improvements – but it would have been papering over the cracks.
In reality, only a small handful of players can (and should) be assured of their place in the squad come September 1st.