Klopp: Away record against top six is not a concern

Jurgen Klopp has downplayed any suggestion that Liverpool struggle to defeat their top six rivals away from home.

In the first two months of Jurgen Klopp’s tenure, the Reds had recorded two fine victories away to Chelsea (3-1) and Man City(4-1).

But in recent times, it has become more of a struggle.

The Reds have picked up just the one victory from the last away 12 fixtures, which was a 2-1 victory away to Tottenham last September.

It is a stat which caused some surprise for Klopp, but he says the pleasing thing was that the performances were to the level he liked.

The Mirror reported Klopp as saying:

“Performance-wise, that’s why it’s so surprising.

"There was one at Arsenal where we should have won when Virgil [van Dijk] had two no-brainers that he didn’t score, the header against the post.

“Against Man City we lost last year but that is not a match you lose usually.

“The margins at the end were so small with the ball not over the line."

 Klopp alluded to the fact that some of those fixtures were played when his team was at a significant disadvantage compared to the opposition.

“We were always the [Premier League] club that was in the Champions League the longest.

“We lost 1-0 at Chelsea two seasons ago when we came from a Champions League game and they were not involved anymore. That helps.

“I don’t remember these specific away games but it was pretty rare that it was a performance that deserved to lose an away game.

The manager said sticking to your own strengths is the most important thing when it comes to these big fixtures.
 

“We cannot plan winning against a side like Chelsea, City, Tottenham, United.

“You have to play how you play to deny their strengths and push through your strengths. Then you have a chance.

“The last game we won at Tottenham was pretty early in the season. That makes it all different.

“We played against Arsenal early in the season (the 4-3 win in 2016). It was one of the best games for a while and we did really well in that game. 

“So let’s just keep going and we will see what happens.

“It is not an obvious problem.”