Klopp: Injuries, pre-season, and quadruple bid all to blame for Liverpool woes

Jurgen Klopp believes injuries, an imperfect pre-season, and a disappointing finish to last year's quadruple bid are all to blame Liverpool's mixed form in recent months.

The Reds sit seventh in the Premier League ahead of this weekend's trip to in-form Brighton, who would leapfrog them in the table with victory on the south coast.

That position is particularly galling given that the season prior featured a push for Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup and League Cup glory, which ended in the latter two trophies being captured.

And varying explanations for Liverpool's decline have been put forward, with a failure to bolster the squad in the transfer market most regularly cited.

However, Klopp has own, wide-ranging theory on what has gone wrong, which he shared in a lengthy response during his pre-Brighton press conference.

Asked if this is the toughest challenge he has faced at Anfield, the German replied: "Could anybody know how the last season of 64 games could influence this season? I don’t think anybody could know.

"We had holiday, not too much, but we had holiday, there were games here and normally the boys are used to these kind of things.

"They all looked fine and then it started with Diogo coming back from international duty are getting injured and then bam, bam, bam. So that’s how it starts.

"Luis [Diaz] twice and now Darwin [Nunez] suspension and now [injured]. These kind of things offensively.

"Earlier in the season midfielders were not available so that’s we brought in Arthur who then got injured. That’s the situation.

"There is a lot of bad luck, I know. Bad luck is only a reasonable point when you have it yourself. For everybody else bad luck is, 'Yeah' (shrugs shoulders).

"Maybe we are [unlucky] but would I do anything different? I wouldn’t go in the first week to Asia, not because Asia is not great but I would go in the third week to Asia or something like that.

"It was not really in our hands. Things get decided and we deal with it. Is that the reason? No I don’t think so. Would it be better to have done it differently? Yes.

"These kinds of things we learn from, in the end we have to deal with them. We played until the last match day. We planned the pre-season long before that.

"We were in a super positive mood, we could have won everything and then all of a sudden we don’t win everything. That’s how it is. It can happen. That’s the situation now.

"Just because we are Liverpool doesn’t mean we are not allowed to have problems. No, we have to deal with it. That’s how it is."

Despite the struggles Liverpool have faced so far this season, Klopp is convinced that his team can get back to their best eventually.

And he has promised that everyone at Kirkby is doing all they can every day to ensure that happens sooner rather than later.

Asked about that possibility, he said: "Of course. Definitely, definitely. It is always the same.

"You have too many injuries for whatever reason. The players who are fit have to play all the time which means they cannot always fly.

"We don't have exactly in the opportunities to change, to rotate, things like this, don't forget last season how we could rotate between the cup competitions and the team we had on the pitch was still incredible.

"We could have done that with the players we had this season but we never could so you play then too many games when the players are injured and when they come back they usually need time but we don't have time so it [injury] can happen again. It's a [vicious] circle.

"So that is the situation we are in. No problem. I love being here and I love being part of this Liverpool thing and that means with all the stuff that a draw feels like a defeat, I love that because that is how it has to be. But still the next game is coming up and we have to make sure we are ready for that and that is what we try.

"The thing is that every game for us is every three days and it's like 'again?' We have been in this situation and it is difficult to fulfill everything. I know results are the most important but if we win it is 'yeah, yeah, but it is not like they used to play.'

"Now it is tough and I’m sorry for that but we try to work on solutions, believe me, really believe me. With all we have. The whole season is obviously not a free flowing one. It’s not easy for one second in the whole season but we always found a way back because we stuck together.

"Internally no problem at all, and I’m not even in a little bit of doubt about our supporters but of course the words I have now are not as fancy as they were when we win football games.

"If you have to explain a not so good situation, life is like this, nobody wants to listen and it’s like ‘Come on shut up and sort it’. Now I spoke quite a lot about something nobody wants to hear anything about but that’s it."