Jurgen Klopp has insisted that he will not be leaving Liverpool, unless the club decide the time is right for him to go.
Liverpool fell to a sixth Premier League defeat of the season at the weekend, when they were thrashed 3-0 by Brighton – a result that leaves them ninth in the table, 10 points shy of the top four and 19 behind leaders Arsenal.
Klopp did not hide his feelings after the defeat on Saturday, describing it as the worst in his reign on Merseyside that began in 2015 against a Brighton side that leapfrogged them in the table after securing three points.
But the German signed a contract extension until 2026 last year and the 55-year-old stressed only the sack would prevent him seeing that through.
“Either the manager's position changes or a lot of other things change,” he said. “So as far as I am concerned unless someone tells me I will not go.
“So that means maybe there is a point where we have to change other stuff. We will see that, but that is something for the future. Like summer or whatever. Not now.
“I have space and time to think about it – we have to play better football now.”
Captain Jordan Henderson (32), Fabinho (29) and 31-year-old Thiago Alcantara remain first-choice picks in midfield but Klopp denied he was being too loyal to the old guard.
Brighton 3 Liverpool 0: Player ratings
“The problem is too complex. You have a good player who did a lot of good things in the past and then in your mind [you think] maybe that's it for him,” the former Borussia Dortmund coach said of the need for rejuvenation.
“If you can then go out and bring in another player to replace [him] that makes sense. If you cannot bring anybody in you cannot bring anybody out. That is the situation.”
Klopp, whose team face Wolves in an FA Cup third-round replay on Tuesday, also rejected the suggestion that longer-serving players had stopped listening to him.
“I was not that often in a similar situation but I know exactly how it works when things don't go well,” he said.
“There is a list of things you go through and one of the things is the players aren't listening to the coach any more.
“In Germany we say the manager doesn't reach the team any more. So I understand it looks like this sometimes but it is just not the case. You can take that off the list.”
