Jurgen Klopp says he is confident his Liverpool side are still challengers in the Premier League title race, and can close the gap in time on leaders Manchester City and United.
The Reds fell short once again this weekend, this time to newly promoted Newcastle United. Klopp’s men drew 1-1 with Benitez’s Toon, and despite once again looking sharp up front, Liverpool’s weaknesses at the back prevailed.
Liverpool took the lead in the game just before the half hour mark thanks to a wonderful strike from Philippe Coutinho, perhaps a contender for goal of the season. However, his effort was cancelled out less than 10 minutes later, as Joselu equalised for Newcastle.
Despite the result though, Klopp has insisted his team are more than capable of closing the gap at the top of the table – with there still being 31 games to go in the season.
“I can talk about our football and the points we get for it, and then we talk about the gap between us and other teams.” Klopp said.
“We will close the gap, however big it is, and we will see where we end. But it’s all about our own situation, not thinking about where the others are.”
“We have, obviously, our hard moments; other teams will have hard moments.”
“We have had hard moments and we have to work on our thing. I really think that it looks like we are not far away from a real challenger, so if we do what we are good at and we can score more goals, then we will win games and we don’t have to think about other teams.”
“We will close the gap, however big it is, and we will see where we end. But it’s all about our own situation, not thinking about where the others are.”
When asked if his side should have won the game against Newcastle, the German said: “Yes, I thought. But I have to accept it. I know how it works, I have to accept it.”
