Jurgen Klopp admits Liverpool 'need to wake up' after 4th loss in 5 games

Jurgen Klopp has called on Liverpool to wake up after they slipped to a disappointing 2-0 defeat to Hull City on Saturday (4 February).

The German coach all but admitted that his team's title challenge was over after confirming that qualifying for the Champions League was their main priority. The Reds are now 13 points behind league leaders Chelsea, but face the prospect of dropping out of the top four if Manchester City win their game against Swansea City on Sunday (5 February).

Liverpool have had a dreadful start to 2017 having won just one game in their last ten outings in all competitions and Klopp has admitted that it was his responsibility to make his team start performing better. The Merseyside club lost four of their last five games which include their exits from the FA Cup at the hands of championship outfit Wolves and their loss to Southampton in the semi-finals of the EFL Cup.

Liverpool had 72% of the possession and 22 attempts on goal during the match against Hull and Klopp was at odds to describe the performance of his team. He was impressed with their second half display and called on his team to play more consistently in the coming weeks to keep their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League next season alive.

"The overall performance was not like it should be. It makes no sense for us to play like this," Klopp said, as quoted by BBC Sport.

"If we played like we did in the second half for the whole game, no team can cope with us. But we need to wake up; that was not acceptable.

"The Champions League is a big, big target but it is so difficult because there are so many challengers. After today's performance we don't have to think about this," the German coach added.

"A week ago I spoke about expectations and said we were still allowed to have a positive look on the situation because we are still fourth in the league.

"But, after a game like this, we have to take all the criticism because we expect more from ourselves and we have to show more than we did today. It is my responsibility to make it possible," he noted.