Anfield has not been home sweet home for Liverpool lately.
The Reds lost 1-0 to visiting Fulham on Sunday, extending their run of defeats on home soil to six Premier League games. The team has scored just one goal during that stretch, and has failed to win a league fixture at Anfield since Dec. 16.
It's not surprising, then, that Liverpool's league standing has slipped during the club's home woes, with Sunday's loss leaving the team in eighth place.
Manager Jurgen Klopp believes that, while his team "wanted to win this game" against Fulham, confidence issues exacerbated by the home losing streak are weighing down his players.
"We have really tight results in the moment, pretty much always against us, and we have to make sure we win football games again," Klopp said. "If it’s a 1-0 [game], it’s fine, fight for it with all you have and then you can gain confidence and momentum maybe again. In the moment we don’t have that."
The coach pointed to injuries that have racked the Liverpool roster all season long as a major factor in his team's downfall, but he ruled out using it as an excuse for Sunday's result.
"For winning one football game, no," Klopp said when asked if injuries contributed to the most recent defeat. "For being the successful team again, for being the team we can be in the best possible way, of course we have to be complete. More complete than we are in the moment, that’s all clear, but that’s not what we are thinking about in the moment."
Klopp says his team isn't currently in the right mindset to fight while from behind on the scoreboard, so when Fulham scored just before halftime it led to a predictable finish. Frustration sets in in that kind of situation, the coach said.
"Then the longer the game goes, obviously in our situation it’s not that you get stronger and stronger and stronger," he explained. "It gets a little bit lesser again and that’s why we lost."
Check out highlights from the match below (Canada only):