Jurgen Klopp has strongly dismissed suggestions that an attitude problem is linked to Liverpool's disappointing season so far.
The Reds endured a difficult first half to their campaign, picking up just 29 points from 19 games to leave themselves 10 adrift of the top four out in ninth, but Klopp's team have an opportunity to reach the fifth round of the FA Cup when they travel to Brighton on Sunday afternoon.
A 3-0 defeat at the Amex in the league earlier this month led to Klopp labelling it one of his worst days in 1000 games of management but the FA Cup draw offers the holders a chance to gain a measure of revenge on the south coast this weekend.
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Having lost eight games in all competitions this term Klopp was asked if he feels there is an issue with application from his players following last season's efforts that saw them secure a domestic cup double before reaching the Champions League final and posting 92 points in the Premier League.
"If it would be an attitude problem, it would be really easy [to solve], really easy because then it is like they are good guys and it is not that they played badly on purpose," Klopp said. "It has never happened before, so why should it [now]?
"That is why I cannot sit here and say when everything is not going well and say 'I told them everything and they just don't do it'. Attitude is not a problem. It is the understanding of necessity.
"For example, a player would check his running stats after the game and in a game where everyone is happy the defending is exactly the same [statistics] when you told me I was not good. In the first place it is an impulse, so these situations change from defensive to offensive.
"Let us say you go to a side you have to [make a challenge] a second later, you might have to run a lot more because you then have to run all the way back. Attitude is there, they want to run! We don’t score an awful lot of goals, we don’t create 500 chances and then you miss a chance you think 'let's do this again and next time we will score.'"
Klopp added: "It is not an attitude problem, the Brighton game was good for making everyone 100% clear of this fact. That was the low point. OK, that is not allowed and it is work, hard work to get there again. If it was easy, everyone could have done it over the last five or six years.
"We have to get there again and that is what we are working for. I really saw real steps in the right direction and that is important. That must be my best concern for the starting line-up. How can we get stability into the line-up? After that, we have everything, we have to control a game or chase a game and when you have players on the bench then you can do that but it is really important we have stability from the first second.
"We are a pressing team, we cannot sit deep and let them come. We can't do that but we can decide how big the pitch is and I never saw a bigger pitch at Brighton. They only drop because we didn’t put a challenge in up front or midfield and that is what Brighton used, how many counter attacks did they have?, How many balls did we give them? Brighton did really well but there were a lot of moments where we had a proper hand in their situations."
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