Jurgen Klopp confessed that his team have it all to do if they are to secure Champions League football for a seventh consecutive season.
The Reds sit eighth in the league table, seven points behind fourth-placed Tottenham, and with just 10 games to go it looks to be a long way back given the side’s recent displays.
Klopp suggested in his post-Chelsea press conference that Liverpool will need to win “pretty much all the games” and hope for slip-ups elsewhere if they are to achieve a top-four spot.
Liverpool have won only three of their 15 away trips in the league this season, scoring just 14 goals while conceding 24 – and they still have four to navigate.
“I don’t know if there is any chance, for that we must win pretty much all the games and the other teams must lose a lot of games,” Klopp told the media of Liverpool’s top-four chances.
“It’s not in our hands, I cannot say, what can I say about that? It’s not important.”
The Reds do have a game in hand on Tottenham and are still to welcome them to Anfield this season, but the inconsistency Liverpool have demonstrated all season leaves fans with little hope to cling to.
The manager also insisted that should fourth place become out of reach, he still intends to try and finish in the highest position possible.
Klopp explained to reporters: “If we are not fourth, then I want to be fifth, if we are not fifth, then we want to be sixth, so that’s what I want to be.
“For that we have to win football games, because in the moment I don’t even know where we are exactly. Eighth? Seventh? Ninth? I don’t know – it’s not interesting.”
Things don’t get any easier for the the Reds in their next fixture, with league leaders Arsenal coming to Anfield this Sunday for Liverpool’s first home game in over a month.
Whether or not Klopp was right to insinuate that Liverpool must end the season perfectly remains to be seen, but results must come soon and they need to start this weekend.