The 22 goals they have scored in 20 league matches is the lowest in their history and with Daniel Sturridge, Divock Origi and Danny Ings all injured the Reds are operating with one fit striker in Christian Benteke.
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His vexation stems from the abject performance at Upton Park on Saturday, when West Ham sent Liverpool bouncing out of London with a 2-0 defeat, enabling them to record a first league double since 1963-64.
Sturridge last played on December 6 and Klopp has ruled him out of Tuesday’s League Cup semi-final first leg at Stoke City, according to Liverpool’s official Twitter account.
“But for the rest of the game we had the ball, we passed it, we were around the box and we didn’t shoot or pass in the right moment, we did not have consistency in our crosses and things like this”. Some little things happened. “Daniel had some problems in these weeks, not serious, but then he could not make the next session and we had to wait a day or something like this – how a preseason can be”.
“I’ll be the first one to pick him when he’s ready”.
‘I had a fantastic career as a player and that is what my expectation was as a manager but you go a different route and different level teams who maybe don’t have that potential. “There’s only one reason to be in tournaments and that’s to win it. It will be tough because Mark Hughes has done a brilliant job”. In pre-season we load our bodies with strength, energy, all we need for the games and then the problems start.
“For us, it’s a good time to play them (Liverpool) because we’re at home and looking for a reaction”.
“I think we are very evenly matched”, said Hughes, who will have midfielder Geoff Cameron available after winning his appeal against his weekend red card. Teams have to be at their best to withstand us at home.
Klopp has been impressed by Stoke’s recent displays, which have included home wins over Manchester City and Manchester United. If one of the centre backs drops back, it leaves space through the middle for players to attack crosses, which is equally problematic. Arnautovic has [also] made a really good development. Clear in our words.
“My point is that foreign managers [coming to Britain] have a chance to build it domestically so when people look at it they can see they’ve won cups and leagues which for British managers is a bit more hard”.
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“I’ve been close and I had a couple of FA Cup semi-finals at Blackburn and a League Cup semi-final at Blackburn”, said the Potters boss, who won this competition three times with United, Chelsea and Blackburn.
