Jurgen Klopp urged his struggling team to get ‘back to basics’

• Liverpool lost to Brighton on Saturday, dropping them to 9th position.
• Jurgen Klopp’s side face Wolves in the FA Cup third round replay at Molineux.
• Liverpool’s American owners have put the team up for sale.

When Liverpool faced Wolves in the FA Cup on Tuesday, Jurgen Klopp urged his struggling team to get back to the fundamentals in an effort to stop their season from getting out of hand.

On Saturday, Liverpool suffered a humiliating 3-0 loss against Brighton, dropping them to ninth position in the Premier League.

The Reds have suffered six league defeats so far this year, and the Brighton disaster, which came directly after a dismal loss at Brentford, has heightened the crisis-like atmosphere at Anfield.

Liverpool, which has been plagued by injuries to numerous important talents, notably Virgil van Dijk and Luis Diaz, is a shell of the team that came close to winning the quadruple last season.

Making sure Liverpool has a stronger defensive foundation, starting with the FA Cup third round replay at Molineux, is according to Klopp the first step on the path to recovery.

“The issues we had were obvious. In the end, these are football problems. To play better football than we did at Brighton should not be too difficult,” Klopp told reporters on Monday.

“We have to be more compact. The pitch looks too big when we are defending. You have to go back to basics and from there you can make steps.

“We have to do some things slightly different and some things the same. All the success in football starts with solid defending and that’s what we have to do again.”

In order to reenergize a team that has recently been sluggish, Klopp will make changes against Wolves.

“We need fresh legs. The easy thing for me is to sit here and tell the boys ‘At Brighton you put us in the situation so let´s see how you can get us out of it’,” Klopp said.

“But that would mean I am out of responsibility and I just can’t (say that).”

In early January, Klopp acquired Dutch forward Cody Gakpo from PSV Eindhoven, and he hopes to add more players.

But he is aware that finding good additions in the middle of a campaign might be challenging, particularly given that Liverpool’s American owners have put the team up for sale.

“We look outside as well. If solutions for us were out there, available and do-able of course we would bring in players to help. But we have an existing squad as well and we are under performing,” Klopp said.

“Yes we have limited options but we have players with a contract here, they are just not available.

“Our squad is not too small. Do we have to strengthen? Oh yes. Is this the right moment to do it? I can´t see it because of the situation we are in.”

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