Jürgen Klopp remains convinced of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s ability despite the dismal performance by Liverpool’s £35m signing in his first start at Leicester.
Oxlade-Chamberlain missed an early chance and seemed nervous and error-prone thereafter, but Klopp felt his performance was not as bad as some critics have suggested.
“The criticism came quite quick,” the Liverpool manager said. “He had a few good situations and a few unlucky situations, but this was his first start.
“He didn’t have the best game of his life so in the world of football at the moment you get criticised for that, but I am not in doubt. He did really well in some moments but he is still trying to adapt to our style of play.”
Liverpool travel to Leicester again on Saturday, to a ground where Klopp has now endured three defeats in three visits – and a manager already under pressure to solidify a leaky defence is concerned that he might be without two regular centre-backs. Dejan Lovren has not been training because of a back injury and is rated doubtful and Klopp revealed Joël Matip will need a late fitness test after picking up a knock.
Liverpool have been paying for a perceived inability to defend set pieces, and Klopp admitted his players need to concentrate more and be ready to deal with balls coming into the box. “We sometimes put too much into trying to clear the first ball and are not ready for the second,” he said.
“We have too many players too close together for the first ball so when it comes back we don’t have a good formation. We have to keep working at it but I must admit I would rather have a team that can play football but struggles to defend set pieces than the other way around.
“The way people are talking it sounds like we are the worst team in the country, at the bottom of the table with nil points, but in fact we have eight, and we are still fluent and creative in attack even if we are not scoring as many goals.
“Obviously we have some problems, but as long as we are staying in games and showing what we are good at the situation is not quite as serious as is being suggested.”
Some of the confidence and brio has drained from Klopp as a result of four games without a win, a sequence that includes the 5-0 drubbing at Manchester City, though he insists he is not concerned at facing Leicester again so soon after Liverpool’s midweek elimination from the Carabao Cup. “I don’t believe in bad places to go,” he said. “If you lose somewhere it becomes more likely that you will win at some point. It’s all about performing. You shouldn’t think too much about it, things can always change. Dortmund won at Hamburg this week. When I was there we never won one time. They had a bad record but obviously it changed. That’s how it is.”
Klopp is attempting to remain calm and rational amid a rising tide of disappointment – he objects to the word panic – at Anfield. “We could have won our last four games but we didn’t,” he said. “Could have means we were really close. I still don’t think any team in the world loves playing against us at the moment, and I would say Burnley were lucky to take a point last weekend if their gameplan involved scoring from a set piece then conceding 35 shots on target or whatever. We know we have to improve, we know we have to keep improving, but obviously it is very difficult to be number one in England even though Liverpool have not been number one for the last 25 years.
“In the end it is always like this: we win a game and everyone is happy, we fail to win and everyone comes out with reasons why we will never win again. I think football is like that everywhere, but here [Merseyside] perhaps a little more. Especially when the Manchester teams are flying, as they are at the moment, but I cannot change that. What I can do is try to cool the situation down and keep working on the things we do well.”