Jurgen Klopp: Marcus Rashford the perfect example to Liverpool’s out-of-form stars

Jurgen Klopp has cited Marcus Rashford as the perfect example to his struggling Liverpool players as they look to overcome a collective dip in form.

After scoring just five times in 32 appearances across a forgettable 2021-22 campaign, Rashford has reinvented himself under new Manchester United boss Erik Ten Hag.

The 25-year-old as netted 18 times in 31 outings this term to bring the Red Devils into top-four contention and help them reach the League Cup final.

It is a renaissance that Klopp is using as inspiration as he deals with a squad that is falling well short of its previous standards this season.

He said: "It's not a massive difference to lesser good players when they have a dip in their development, that's difficult as well, it's just something you have to deal with.

"We call see that some players didn't exactly reach the level they reached for us consistently over four or five or six years. That's not unusual, it happens to other players as well.

"One of the best examples, ever probably, will be Marcus Rashford. The season he has last year and the season he has this year, I'm not sure he can really explain it.

"Erik Ten Hag coming in, new boys, a different approach, of course (makes a difference) but it's not as though Marcus didn't want to deliver last year. Now he is flying. That's how it goes.

"The times in between these two extremes we have to use and go through it and fight through it. Self-pity is not allowed in these moments.

"We are human beings and know these moments when you think, 'Oh my God, everything is going against me'. There's only one person who can change that really and it's yourself. These kind of things can happen and will happen in the future as well, but it's about limiting the time to get back on track.

"The team can help with that. The team performances are obviously a summary of the individual performances, but the other way around it works as well. The individual performances are influenced massively by the team performance. Sometimes the team helps you through these kind of things, and when you have one or two or three of these performances (from players) then it becomes more and more difficult.

"That doesn't change the view on the players in general. But you have to make decisions for the moment for the line-up, and that's maybe a bit more of a problem for the manager because when you realise that's not only a little dip and it is going on longer, do we have alternatives?

"For the player it's a situation which he will face during a long career. Not only once but probably two or three times. You have to get through this and the players I know, my players, they will go through that and show again how good they are.”

One Liverpool player desperately in need of a similarly remarkable recovery is Fabinho, who has looked a shadow of himself for so much of this season.

The Brazilian's poor form has even seen him surrender his position as first-choice holding midfielder to teenager Stefan Bajcetic in recent weeks.

Klopp added: "We don't have arguments on the pitch or the training ground, not at all. He knows that he is not flying and has to work his way back.

"It's now really helpful that we have Stefan, to be honest. He is doing really well and you need in this position the guy who wants to win challenges, protects everybody and who plays football as well. That's really important.

"Fab did that for us for plenty of years, absolutely brilliant, the best in his position for a long time, and in the moment it's not clicking.

"You have to go through that. He's now not the happiest person on the planet but he understands the decision obviously."