Explained: How Liverpool are working to regain their mojo

The Reds head into Saturday’s Anfield meeting with Eddie Howe’s side having lost three of their last four games in all competitions.

That downturn in results contrasts starkly with Klopp’s team’s near-flawless form for much of the season, however, and the manager has spoken at length about the efforts of all at Melwood to recapture their previous level of performance.

Read on for a summary from the boss’ pre-match press conference…

Does losing three games in quick succession have little impact on confidence due to the remarkable consistency beforehand, or does it mean you have a bigger job in terms of lifting the players because it’s so rare?

It is a mix of all of that. Of course, winning gives you confidence, losing costs you confidence, that’s completely normal. You start thinking about different things – it’s a long while ago [since the loss of multiple games happened] but one defeat feels like two defeats, it’s not a massive difference. It’s just about how you get back on track immediately, on the result track if you want, and you can do that not by hoping that things are now clicking even better than the game before. You just have to work really hard, you have to fight back on track, that’s always like it is and it will never be different. That’s what we have to do all together tomorrow, we have to do that as a unit with our supporters together and just not waiting for the perfect moment, just working for a very, very good moment and another moment, a better moment, a perfect moment, a super moment, whatever. Working for that and being perfectly protected because the way opponents play against us is not new; it is not new, they do it for I don’t know how long, it feels like always. They have a defensive block and go for counter-attacks and use set-pieces, stuff like this. Bournemouth are especially dangerous around set-pieces, [they are] always good and I think they scored around 50 per cent of their goals from set-pieces, which is quite an impressive number. So we have to be 100 per cent spot on there, we have to play football, to play the way through, to force the way through, to accelerate, to switch the sides, use small spaces to create big spaces and we have to be perfectly protected because of the counter-attacking threat with King, Wilson and Fraser especially. That’s the job to do and it wouldn’t have been different if we had won the last few games, so that’s the same. It’s just that we want to fight and that’s what we have to show.

Have you done anything differently after the Chelsea defeat, such as changes in training or a team meeting, to try to re-energise the players?

No, we had a big meeting after the Watford game and after the Chelsea game it would have been really silly from my side if we change seven times [players] and then I tell the boys ‘You should have changed the situation for us’. I said it after the game, I liked a lot of parts of the game. We conceded two goals, one after a counter-attack, one after a super shot with, and I know nobody wants to hear it, a tricky ball. Adrian usually saves that and if we don’t lose the ball beforehand…

So they were two situations which were not like they should have been, but apart from that it was a very intense game against a very good Chelsea side from a team where we changed seven positions, so I was completely fine with that. It’s difficult to mention that for a football manager after a game you lose because nobody wants to hear it, but that’s the truth. We had our situations, two big, big moments where we could’ve scored but didn’t. In that game that we won at Chelsea months ago we scored in these moments, that’s sometimes the only difference. After Watford, that was the moment when I thought now we have to talk in a slightly different and maybe more detailed way. That’s what we did but then everybody asked about the reaction showing in the Chelsea game – I saw a reaction but not all the players had really something to do with the game before. 

It’s just ‘carry on’ – I cannot make the same meeting all three days, that doesn’t work. Chelsea was Chelsea, we are out of the FA Cup, we were out of the FA Cup last year [and] I forgot where we left the competition last year. We didn’t want to have that but it is. We lost the game last year and then the Premier League game we lost last year was in January, so that’s how it is, it’s not new. The opponents – Watford were strong, we not so much, an away game at Atletico, how can I say we have to win there clearly in the way they approach the game? It’s really difficult, a lot of teams would have struggled. And now Chelsea, that’s it. We don’t underestimate it, really, it’s not that we think that’s nothing or normal. It’s actually for us the opposite of normal, but to find the way back you cannot change things just like you want, you have to rely on the things that were good before and were maybe good in the games you lost. Just do it in a higher intensity, do it on a higher concentration level, force it more in some moments, all that stuff. There are a lot of things you can do without changing it completely and that’s what we try. 

Does the fact the team have not created many clear chances during the defeats concern you?

It is difficult to not create headlines because you are all waiting for me to say something and if I use now the word you use, that is the headline. I am not that much in that mood, but I am not blind. I see that we didn’t score and I see that we didn’t create in these moments – that’s what we are working on, 100 per cent. We never took it for granted before and now we don’t think it is impossible to do it again, it’s just about how we set up, how we do the things, how clear we are in the moments and how good we deal with the little setbacks in football games because they are always there and were always there. That’s it. In a lot of moments we could have done better, we know that 100 per cent and that’s what we are working on, but we don’t take it now for granted that from now on we will not score more and from now on they will score with each chance they have, that’s not like it is. We know that if we perform on our highest level, and actually there’s nothing else we want to do tomorrow, then it will be difficult for Bournemouth and we should not forget that as well. It’s not that it will be an easy game for Bournemouth tomorrow, but we don’t go in the game and think ‘Bournemouth, let’s tick the box and carry on and think about Atletico’, not at all. We are 100 per cent focused on this game. The boys want to get a result, the boys want to respond in the right way and that’s what we have to show because it’s not important what we say in meetings, it’s important what we show on the pitch and for the first time since Chelsea we have the opportunity tomorrow at 12.30.

Inside Training: Behind the scenes of Reds’ Bournemouth prep

Have you seen signs in training to indicate the players’ confidence is returning?

Training was good, training was good. I am not sure how you think we could train after the games we played, so the boys who played against Chelsea they had yesterday second-day recovery, we cannot change that. That’s sports science, so that is not a day for showing a reaction. The boys who didn’t play, they enjoyed their football a lot in the sessions we had since then, but that was not really different before. I get it, again, that you ask it, but the only answer we can give is on the pitch. It is not here, it is not in the meeting. I cannot explain it good enough, we cannot speak about all the things we are talking about because I have to talk to my players. People might say it’s a difficult situation, but I think it’s rather interesting, to be honest. I think it’s really interesting and that’s my job, it’s my work I have to do, to help the players to be now back where we want to be and where we think we belong. That’s what we have to do in these sessions and for that we give them all the help we can give them. Some recovered, some trained hard and then we bring them all together today and make a line-up for tomorrow and play football – in an ideal world, the best football we are able to play.