He focused a lot on how Liverpool can improve after the shaky start to the season continued, with Rangers the next chance to start an upward trajectory.
Here are five key takeaways from the coach ahead of Tuesday’s game:
trust talk
The faltering confidence on this side is no secret, it’s the night and day of what we saw last season, but Klopp knows it can happen.
Liverpool’s task now is to fight as a team.
“People may ask, ‘How come these players aren’t full of confidence?’ Do we think Cristiano Ronaldo is currently at the peak of his confidence? He happens to all of us. Lionel Messi last season more or less the same”, he said.
“We have to work for it. Take the little things, take a step in the right direction, and be ready when you return. Being 2-0 is not good for confidence.
“In individual sports, maybe, you can fight for yourself, but in team sports, we all have to do it together. It makes it a bit more complicated.
“When you spot a problem and you think you have the solution, you expect the solution to be instant and influential, that’s never the case in football.”
“Back to basics”
It has not escaped many that Liverpool concedes the same goal over and over again, with the same gap open to the rival as if the team were laying out a red carpet for them.
In the past the intensity of the Reds has negated these issues, but with the current lack Liverpool are too open and there is now a clear need to ‘go back to basics’.
“We are now granting similar targets. We have a brave way of defending, but when there is no time, spaces open up. We closed the gaps earlier with intensity,” Klopp said.
“They have been through the same gaps. When the timing of our defense is not perfect, we are too open. We have to be more compact.
“Defending is an art and it worked very well for us for a long time. But when it doesn’t work, you realize you have to go back to basics.”
Don’t worry about Nunez
Darwin Núñez has started just two games for Liverpool so far this season, against Palace and Everton, and is expected to start three on Tuesday.
He hasn’t turned on Anfield yet, but there is no concern on the part of Klopp and company.
“It’s good. Of course he’s still adapting, as players always adapt.
“Players, new players, come in, everyone is talking about them and they want them to shine right away. That happens from time to time and sometimes it doesn’t.
“Only yesterday we had a long talk – with Pep Lijnders, because my Spanish or Portuguese is still not better – and we told him ‘we are completely calm’.
“So it’s really important in our situation now not to start worrying, and he doesn’t seem to be worried or whatever.”
Pérez and the Super League
Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has made headlines again with his lines about the Super League and citing the lack of meetings with Liverpool as a problem that needs to be addressed.
He doesn’t let the idea pass, but while talking about European competitions, Klopp talked about a different way of improving football.
“I have no opinion on it, I’m not interested,” Klopp said of Perez’s latest comments.
“I think we should play fewer games to improve football, give teams more time to train, but, as I said, I have no opinion.”
A reunion with Davies
Davies left Anfield this summer in a deal worth up to £4m, and could now find himself lining up against Liverpool in the Champions League.
With injuries to defence, a place at center back has opened up and Davies could well partner Connor Goldson on Tuesday, not how he would have envisioned his competitive Anfield arc.
“Ben is a really good player,” Klopp said when asked about the 27-year-old. “He was here, a good defender, he didn’t work here, but that doesn’t make him a bad player. He is a really good boy.”
Ex-Red Ryan Kent is also expected to start.
