Klopp: “it’s not 100% fair to judge the team”

Klopp claims a series of injuries to key players means it is unfair to make any judgement on his squad or his own position until the end of the season.

Ahead of Liverpool final Champions League group stage game with Napoli, with the Reds needing to win by four goals to finish top of the group, Klopp defended his team current form after just picking up four League wins from the first 12 games of the season

Liverpool lost in last Saturday to their counterparts Leeds United 1-2 at Anfield to lose at their home ground for the first time in the Premier League in 29 games, and Egyptian attacker Mohamed Salah scored the only goal for the home side.

But Klopp claims a series of injuries to key players means it is unfair to make any judgement on his squad or his own position until the end of the season.

Klopp said: “The judgement of this will be later on in the season or maybe at the end of the season, where you say “that’s it” for the group of players or for this manager, if you want.

“Questions will be asked then. In this moment, it’s not 100% fair to judge the team because that means the squad and we didn’t have [some of] them available.

“Up front, we miss top quality. With the amount of games we have, you usually would make changes and we can’t do that. It’s a similar situation in midfield, players who are out and came back. We’ve had this pretty much everywhere.

“We expect more out of ourselves. The players expect more and I expect more out of them. But we have to make sure we get steps.”