John Marshall
Liverpool’s second-half collapse against Southampton leaves them in danger of missing out on the top four for a second-straight season and Jurgen Klopp has said the Reds must win every game from now until the end of the season if they are to have any hope of qualifying for the Champions League next season.
Liverpool’s top-four ambitions took a massive hit on Sunday after losing 3-2 away to Southampton despite leading 2-0 after 64 minutes.
Early goals to Philippe Coutinho and Daniel Sturridge had Klopp’s men cruising, but Graziano Pelle’s effort and a second-half brace to Sadio Mane saw Southampton claim an important win.
Liverpool remain seven points out of the top four with nine games left to play, and Klopp believes only a 100 per cent record will give them a chance of Champions League football.
“I’m not that good a loser so I don’t feel brilliant, as you can imagine. But I’ve been around long enough to know this can happen in football,” the German said.
“There are still 27 points to be won and if we can get all of them, there is still a chance of finishing in the top four. If not, it will be difficult.
“If we play like we did in the first half, we can win – if we play the way we did in the second, it is more difficult. That is all.
“We played a perfect first half and could have scored more, but we had a few problems in the second half and we could have done better.
“I’m not angry, but I am frustrated that we got nothing for a very good first half – we showed again that we can be a real brilliant side but we didn’t take the points, which is what matters.
“It’s easy to count the games and say we’ve played 10 more games than Southampton this season, but today we made football mistakes and we will learn from them.”
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