Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has dismissed the suggestion that his side's Europa League exertions played a part in the Reds' 3-2 defeat at Southampton earlier today.

The Reds headed into the game in high spirits from knocking Manchester United out of the Europa League on Thursday night and took an early lead when Philippe Coutinho found the back of the net in the 17th minute.




Liverpool were cruising by the 22nd minute when Daniel Sturridge doubled their advantage and the visitors had further chances to score again before half time, though they did not take any.

Southampton started their fightback in the second half, although it did not get off to the best of starts after Sadio Mane missed a penalty.
 


He made amends in the 64th minute when he struck to make it 2-1, while Graziano Pelle then drew Southampton level in the 83rd minute, before Mane, on at half time as a substitute, won it for the Saints with an 86th minute goal.

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For Klopp, while Liverpool's second half performance was worse than their first, the Europa League did not have an impact.

"Usually after a European game very often you have problems in the first half", he said via his club's site.

"I’ve seen it a lot of times, but in the first half we had absolutely no problems.

"We could have done better and there were a few situations where we had to, but it’s a football problem and nothing else", the German continued.

"We can learn from it, of course, and we will – but today it’s too late because we lost."

Despite the defeat, Klopp is not ruling out reaching the top four however and urged his side to try and win every one of their remaining nine league matches.

"There are still 27 points for us to get from nine games? If we can get all of them, there’s a chance, if not it’s difficult.

"It is difficult and we don’t have to dream of things like this – we have to play football and win games. If we play like we did in the first half, we can win games. 

"If we play like we did in the second half, it’s a little bit more difficult", Klopp added.