On Saturday, Liverpool yielded three goals at Anfield for just the second time under Klopp as they lost 3-2 to humble Swansea City in the Premier League, a thrashing that has seen them drop to fourth, 10 points behind leaders Chelsea. Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp has spread the fault for their flawed defense across the group as he prepares to pitch Cameroonian shield Joel Matip into Wednesday’s League Cup semi-last, second leg against Southampton. In any case, the German mentor was in no mind-set to yield the league title, promising his side would “battle for everything” as they seek to shore up the back four and duplicate the streaming football that denoted the first 50% of their season.
“The final mistake is sometimes goalkeeper or defender, but most of the time it’s seven or eight players,” said Klopp. “It’s not about one player. It’s clear what we did wrong and we really have to do better. If it was that easy to buy one player then all the problems are solved, I would be silly not to do it.” Matip has played and the 25-year-old seems prone to profit to focal defense for Wednesday taking after his problems with harm and worldwide freedom.
Soccer’s world governing body FIFA just gave Liverpool the thumbs up to play Matip last week after he turned down Cameroon’s ring for the African Cup of Nations, saying he had effectively resigned from global football.
“It’s a night game at Anfield, if the crowd is good then it would help,” he added, with Liverpool, who lost to Manchester City in last year’s final, trailing 1-0 from the first leg.
“I think I have played more against Southampton than any other team,” noted Klopp. “In (the first leg) we knew it was not a good game for us. Still everything is possible for us.”
