Jurgen Klopp: Liverpool need to work on their mental strength
Jurgen Klopp's first home Premier League match as Liverpool manager ended in a third successive draw, as Southampton's Sadio Mane equalised substitute Christian Benteke's goal with five minutes left at Anfield on Sunday (25 October). Afterwards, Klopp told a news conference it was mental rather than physical strength that the players needed to work on.
"It's not that we stopped our game physically, but we didn't believe any more that we can turn this game, whatever the result and that's the problem. That's why we are not coming up in the moments when we have to change it, when we have the last pass and so on. I don't understand this pressure in this moment, but the guys feel it; you can see this."
He said the players had to understand that they can always come back at an opponent. "That's the thing, because they work so hard, they are full of concentration, they are full of readiness, full of passion, everything is there and we got one goal, received one goal and it felt like the end of the world and it's not the end of the world, it's only a goal and you can come back always and that's what we have to understand. That's what I saw tonight," said the German.
Southampton are one league place ahead of Liverpool in eighth position. Klopp's first Anfield game was a 1-1 draw with Rubin Kazan in the Europa League on 22 October, which came after a goalless draw at Tottenham Hotspur last weekend.
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