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- It was Liverpool's first defeat at Anfield in a year and Klopp is expecting them to erase that sluggish display with a victory at Brighton
- Klopp is confident the rare feeling of losing will give his players a wake-up call heading into the business end of the season
LONDON: Jurgen Klopp has backed Liverpool鈥檚 鈥渂ad losers鈥� to deliver a strong response when they face Brighton on Saturday stung by only their third defeat this season.
Klopp鈥檚 side were beaten 1-0 by Inter Milan in the Champions League last 16 second leg on Tuesday.
Although Liverpool advanced to the quarter-finals 2-1 on aggregate, having won the first leg in Italy 2-0, Klopp is well aware of the impact of a rare loss on his ferociously competitive players.
It was Liverpool鈥檚 first defeat at Anfield in a year and Klopp is expecting them to erase that sluggish display with a victory at Brighton as they chase Premier League leaders Manchester City.
鈥淲e are not good losers. I have usually after a game a little speech in the dressing room, most of the time it is quite nice to tell the boys how good they were, but in this game it was slightly different,鈥� Klopp told reporters on Friday.
鈥淚 realized when I looked in their eyes I am in a better mood than the players when I came in and I lost as well.
鈥淢y first thought was 鈥榃e are through against tough opponents鈥� and their first thought was 鈥榃e lost鈥�. Both is fine somehow.鈥�
Klopp is confident the rare feeling of losing will give his players a wake-up call heading into the business end of the season.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 like part of the performance, especially defensively, and that鈥檚 a good point to make as if we don鈥檛 defend well against Brighton we have a problem,鈥� he said.
鈥淥ur counter-press was not even close to what I would have expected and we got punished for it.
鈥淒o I like the fact that if you don鈥檛 do what the plan was then you get a knock for it then yes.
鈥淚 believe in humans and I really believe that everybody has a specific amount of self-motivation.
鈥淚f you see other guys around you who have something similar or bigger, higher level of motivation you realize there is possibly some room for improvement.鈥�
Klopp has also told Mohamed Salah that the decision over signing a contract extension is in the Egypt forward鈥檚 hands.
Salah鈥檚 current deal expires at the end of next season and there is an impasse on negotiations over a new deal at present.
鈥淚 think Mo definitely expects this club to be ambitious and we are. It鈥檚 Mo鈥檚 decision. The club did what it can do. It is all fine. All fine from my point of view,鈥� Klopp said.
鈥淣othing has happened further, no signing, no rejection, we just have to wait.鈥�