Football
Glenn Price, Liverpool correspondent 7y

Jurgen Klopp 'not a clown,' optimistic about Liverpool's chances of improving

LIVERPOOL -- Jurgen Klopp insists he is "not a clown" and is fully aware of his side's inconsistency issues.

Liverpool are currently unbeaten against the top six sides in the Premier League this season as they prepare to welcome fourth-placed Arsenal to Anfield on Saturday evening.

However, their Achilles heel this season has been teams in the lower half of the table, with all five of their defeats in the league coming against Burnley, Bournemouth, Swansea City, Hull City and most recently Leicester City.

Klopp's side are currently fifth in the standings as they look to secure Champions League football for next season after an initial push for the title.

"I am completely optimistic," Klopp told a news conference on Friday afternoon. "We already had a few bad moments together. It doesn't feel that free-flowing anymore, but that's how seasons are.

"Maybe there is only one team who has had the exact same feeling still -- that's Chelsea -- and the rest had better and worse moments in the month.

"Meanwhile, we have this lack of consistency. We cannot ignore it because we were involved in the games. That's the thing we have to do now.

"It's not too important to compare the start of the season with this moment, but it's obviously different."

He added: "Look, I'm not a clown, even though a few people think I am. I'm not always laughing like crazy. I'm a normal person, which means we all are influenced by the experiences we make.

"How should I be in the exact same mood that I was at the beginning of the season? But my job is that the players feel, until the next game, that there's a big chance that we can win it. Of course, that's not laughing the whole week and ignoring the problems you have."

Liverpool and Arsenal met on the opening weekend of the campaign, with Klopp's side emerging 4-3 victors in a frantic affair at the Emirates Stadium.

"The last games we played against [Arsenal] were always kind of spectacular -- the home game last year [a 3-3 draw] here was intense and spectacular, so maybe the next one will be similar," Klopp said.

"We have to only think about how we can use the experience from the last game, the Tottenham game [won 2-0].

"We cannot ignore the things that happen around, but I am 100 percent optimistic again when I think about the Arsenal game on Saturday. I cannot say I am exactly in the same mood that I was in the beginning of the season."

Meanwhile, Klopp also said he has been in contact with Mario Gotze after it was reported that the Borussia Dortmund midfielder has been ruled out for the foreseeable future with "metabolic disturbances."

Klopp, who tried to bring the 2014 World Cup winner to Anfield in the summer, said: "Yes, we are in touch. We were always in touch. I'm in touch with a lot of my former players.

"With a situation like this then of course we exchange little messages. What can I say? Now he knows about the diagnosis, now you have to work on it and with it. That's what he is doing at the moment and there's nothing else to say.

"When we message, it's private and nothing for public. Not all, but a lot of my former players I am still in contact and we talk about things like this."

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