Jurgen Klopp has compared his Liverpool side’s lack of confidence to that of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
Klopp’s Reds have had a difficult start to the season after challenging for a quadruple last time out, their last result being a 3-3 draw at home to Brighton.
The result leaves Liverpool with two wins from their first seven Premier League games, 11 points from the top of the table and just four from the bottom three.
Their last draw against Brighton saw Liverpool concede the game’s first goal again early on, prompting questions over player confidence.
“People ask how come these players aren’t full of confidence?” Klopp said.
“Do you think Cristiano Ronaldo is at the height of his confidence right now?
“People have said for ages that he’s the best player in the world and now it doesn’t go his way and it’s not exactly the same. It happens to all of us. Lionel Messi last season was pretty much the same thing.
“These things are really important to all of us, you have to work for it, you have to go and take the little things to take a step in the right direction so that you are ready for when it comes back and that’s who we are. Do.
“We have to be patient again to do the right thing and then everything will be fine again. We need to be more solid and compact, definitely.
“We concede similar goals through the same gaps and the problem we have is that we usually have a brave way of defending and when the moment is not right we leave gaps.
“We always did it but nobody recognized it because we closed the ball with intensity. We need to be more compact.
“When it doesn’t work, you realize little by little that you have to go back to basics.”
The biggest off-season change between Liverpool challenging on all fronts last season to struggle to maintain that was the sale of Sadio Mane and the signing of Darwin Nunez.
Mane joined Bayern Munich in a £27m deal, while Nunez was brought in from Benfica for an initial £64m.
The Uruguayan got off to a quick start with a Community Shield goal against Manchester City and then a goal and an assist against Fulham.
However, the following match saw a three-game suspension for a header against Crystal Palace, and he has not been on the scoresheet since.
Klopp, however, isn’t worried and he made sure the striker knew about it.
“He’s still adapting,” Klopp said. “New players are coming in and everyone is talking about them and wanting them to shine immediately and that happens from time to time.
“We had a long chat yesterday and told him we were completely calm. It’s really important in our situation that he doesn’t worry. The three-game suspension hasn’t helped him to recover. install, that’s for sure.
“The team doesn’t steal and that doesn’t make it easy for an attacker, especially a finisher. It’s not that everything clicks into place, it’s not our situation right now as much as I would like.
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