Jurgen Klopp has dismissed assertions that his key messages are not being listened to by Liverpool's players.
The Reds slipped to their sixth Premier League defeat of the season on Saturday at Brighton as the hosts ran out 3-0 winners at the Amex. It marked the first time since 1993 that Liverpool had lost their first two league games of a new year ahead of a visit from Chelsea on Saturday lunchtime.
Before that, however, is a third-round replay in the FA Cup at Wolves on Tuesday night and while Klopp can see why tough questions are being asked after Saturday's performance, he still feels his ideas are getting across to the squad.
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"I was not that often in a similar situation but I have watched football longer than I have been a manager and I know exactly how it works when things don't go well," Klopp said. "There is a list of things you go through and one of the things is the players aren't listening to the coach anymore.
"In Germany we say the manager doesn't reach the team anymore. So I understand it looks like this sometimes but it is just not the case. You can take that off the list. Anyhow, it's very important we change that immediately. For the last two or three games, I have spoken about not winning tackles or challenges often enough.
"We have had moments at Brighton where we have won the ball high up the only problem was we didn't do it enough. And then if we win it the second problem starts: we gave the ball away too easily.
"That is the situation and we are used to being positive so if we win the ball and then we have to make a decision whether to overlap or stuff like this and then at that moment we'd pass the ball into the feet of the opponent and that is the counter-attack. That is what costs you momentum massively.
"So next time, for 11 different people - one team - we want to make different conclusions from that. One makes a step less on the counter-press, one doesn't overlap when we want to because they are protecting the ball and stuff like this, that is the chaos. It's not that it's only happened to us, it's happened thousands of times, sometimes in one game. So we realise it and try and get back to it. It's football, not rocket science."
Klopp added: "But these things you can all see. That is what we're working on. Will we not be over complicated attacking-wise and try to be there and stuff like this, no-look passes and stuff like this, that is not the next step for us, obviously.
"So we have to, 100%, defend well, our counter-pressing has to be on an incredibly high level because that is the best way to defend, high up and you have the ball. There is no better way. That gives us situation after situation and then we are there [in form] again.
"I am ready for that and I know the boys will be as well. It's not what you want to hear when you have a broken leg or whatever. Everyone wants to hear that tomorrow you can go again but you will need a couple of weeks, sometimes months until you are ready. No-one wants to hear that but it is the effect sometimes. We have to make sure we make these steps and we are ready for it. Then we can become the team others don't want to play against again. That would be helpful.
"Between the Brighton and Wolves games there was not a lot of time for practice. I said last week I like the week of training but there will always be parts involved now when I say 'let's get back to basics'. That doesn't mean play like the 1990s or whatever, it's absolutely basics like properly defending, I mean. That is always part of training and yes we will intensify that between the game tomorrow and Saturday.
"Depending on if we go through or not we will have a normal week to train and to use. Of course, I am looking forward to that because we need it. We had a super training camp [in Dubai], really good. But since then we lost key players who were involved in the pre-season [training camp] so it's like 'okay'.
"And they were in helpful positions too, but it is not to blame anyone because I am not even close to that but in fact, some players if they keep the ball when we win it, we have patterns and they work and we know how it will work but they are all gone because the offensive line is completely new. Mo Salah is the only one left there, if you want. That doesn't make life easier.
"So the things we did, as Liverpool, we cannot just defend; kick the ball out and wait for them to attack us. We are a dominant team. Against Wolves for the first 20 minutes we were really good without scoring against a good football team. We all saw how good they were but in the beginning we were clearly superior so that's the situation and we work on each little step to get back there. I am positive. That's it."
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