Jurgen Klopp insists Liverpool cannot blame absentees for their recent drop off in form following just one win in their last six matches in all competitions.

"We missed Sadio (Mane), we missed Phil (Coutinho) for a time and we missed Joel Matip. As much as I like Sadio, it's not that we had problems because we missed Sadio," Klopp said.

"We made other mistakes, not because we're not scoring enough goals. We scored enough goals to win the games.

"You always speak about defence, or players. I speak about the whole defence of the team. If it was to buy one player and fix it, I'd be silly not to do it. But it's not that simple.

"I knew about the problems we had after Christmas, and that was disappointing. I saw before the game that we are back on the right track and we could see the freshness coming back in training.

"But then we have this game, and it's not so nice. But that's part of life too. We had a long meeting after the game, so I'm ready for the rest of the season.

"We've come through a very intense period"