Boss on responding to Brighton, Man City test and PL table
Jürgen Klopp stressed the need for Liverpool to play football 'on a really high level' when they face Manchester City at Anfield on Sunday.
The Reds boss is under no illusions about the improvement required from his side after the midweek defeat at home to Brighton & Hove Albion.
City currently lead the Premier League and are seven points ahead of the reigning champions, who started the weekend in fourth place.
But previous seasons and meetings with Pep Guardiola's team have left Klopp fully aware how fluid the standings can be over the course of a campaign.
“The situation is just completely different, but yes. Of course it can go quickly,” he told reporters.
"For us, [there are] a lot of things between now and the start of the game I will talk to the boys about; not so much now with you obviously. Yes, there are a lot of things to consider for a game like this, a lot of things to think about.
"In the end we have to play football, in the end we have to defend City with really everything we have. And we have to play football on a really high level, because you don’t get easy chances against City as well.
"So, you have to make a few special things and that’s what we try obviously. It’s possible, that’s the good thing about football.
"Even when you lost the last game, everything is possible for the next one. And that’s what we will try to use and show.”
Liverpool suffered their second home defeat of the league season when Steven Alzate's 56th-minute goal secured the three points for Brighton on Wednesday.
It was a result hot on the heels of impressive victories away at Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United.
But those previous matches – good and bad – are in the past now as Klopp looks ahead to the next challenge in the Reds' sights.
He continued: "We can go back in the very beginning of the season when we had a few games we should have won.
“The situation was similar, not a lot less injuries but a little bit less. We should have won games, so we would have had already more points. So it’s not about that.
"We lost the last game and we deserved to lose, we cannot ignore. But you are right, we can’t ignore the other things. This is a tricky season for us.
"All of them [the injured players] are really, really good players. We have to get through this and we have to play better football anyway. Whatever happens around and whoever is out, we have to play the football we are able to play. And I expect that always.
"But on Wednesday I saw the boys wanted [to] but they couldn’t. How I said before, there are only two reasons. One is you don’t want [to] – we can delete that, that’s not the case. Or you can’t – that means there must be a reason for it.
"And the reason was, in my understanding, this time – because I was part of the two trips to London and I saw the two games live on the touchline – it looked like we paid a little bit the bill.
"That’s not cool but that happens. And now let’s go for the next one.”