Klopp reassures fans: ‘We won’t fall apart’

Liverpool lost 2–1 to Brighton in the fourth round of the FA Cup after Kaoru Mitoma’s late goal; Andrew Robertson: “This season hasn’t been good enough”.

Jurgen Klopp: “We won’t fall apart, I can tell you”

Andrew Robertson has said Liverpool let their fans down in their FA Cup fourth round defeat by Brighton, while Jurgen Klopp has vowed his struggling side will not “fall apart”.

The Reds opened the scoring through Harvey Elliot at the Amex Stadium, but Lewis Dunk equalized before Kaoru Mitoma’s brilliant 92nd-minute strike toppled the holders.

The defeat, Liverpool’s second defeat by Brighton in two weeks following a 3-0 Premier League defeat, was their ninth defeat of the season in all competitions, with Robertson admitting their season “wasn’t pretty good” in a candid TV interview.

Already 21 points behind Premier League leaders Arsenal, and out of the Carabao Cup, their latest defeat leaves the Champions League as Liverpool’s only remaining route to the trophy, albeit with a disheartening round of 16 draw against Real Madrid. Bitterly disappointing,” Robertson told ITV Sport after the game.

“It was a real cup game. From start to finish. Both teams had chances. We were much more competitive than two weeks ago, but it didn’t last long. “At the end of the day, we’re out of the cup and that’s hard to bear.

“When you’re at a club like Liverpool, the fans and everyone expect us to go far in these competitions and we haven’t.
“When it’s the last minute and the last kick of the ball, it’s so disappointing.”

Asked what Liverpool need to do to change their fortunes this season, Robertson added: “We have to start winning games. It’s easy to say, but harder to fix. It’s worked so well. “This season has not been good enough. At the turn of the year, we wanted a fresh start, but that didn’t happen. We’ve probably been worse.

“We weren’t good enough in the league. We lost the League Cup to Man City and again today. Now we no longer have the two cups.
“It’s really disappointing. You can’t tell exactly what was wrong. It’s more than that, it’s about putting on a performance where all of these things work, and it’s proving difficult for the moment. “You can tell we’re not so sure in front of goal anymore and defensively we’re still a bit open in some areas.

“We had two clean sheets which is positive, but two disappointing goals today and they had some great chances as well.

“We have to try to regain confidence. It’s easier said than done, but it’s the only way to get results. You have to be able to score goals and keep a clean sheet.” 9 – Liverpool have lost nine games in all competitions this season (from 31 games), more than double the number of defeats compared to all of last season (4 from 63 games).

“We can’t do it now and we have to do it.
“We keep saying it and it doesn’t help the fans. I feel sorry for them, the way we put on a show for them now. Behind the lens today was packed. They were amazing.

“We let them down again and of course we’re disappointed that we fell out of the cup.”

Klopp promises to keep fighting, but rules out signings at the end of January
Klopp was delighted to see some improvement on his 3-0 defeat to Brighton two weeks ago, a performance he described as his worst in management, and urged his Liverpool players to stick together and keep fighting as try to salvage their season.

“We had our moments again,” he said during his press conference. “We are making great strides, but we have to improve.

“You have to respect what they do, it’s really cool. There have been steps in the right direction. We have to start from there.

“We will try. We have to build. Body language: some guys have done much better. We couldn’t have won the last game here, but today nobody would be surprised if we had won.

“We won’t fall apart, I can tell you. If it looks like that, I’m sorry. It’s not that we parted late, it was frustration: players get yellow cards, it happens.

“After we came back from the World Cup break, we wanted to go for it. It hasn’t gone well so far. But it just means that we have to keep working. Today there were some very good performances.

“I’m not thrilled with this performance overall. But this was much better. Two weeks ago it was terrible.

“I 100% understand when people say we are not happy with the match. I feel sorry for the Liverpool fans. We paid back a little today but we are still out and this is the worst result of the match.”

Klopp said in a separate interview that he had ruled out the possibility of signing other players before Tuesday’s transfer deadline. “Nothing will happen in this transfer window, that’s all,” he said.