Liverpool head coach Jurgen Klopp has admitted that his side need there to be "a crisis" at both Manchester City and Arsenal in order to win the Premier League title this season.
The Reds have seen their hopes of lifting the trophy take a huge hit courtesy of two defeats in their last three league matches, losing at home to Crystal Palace on April 14 before going down 2-0 to Everton in Wednesday night's Merseyside derby at Goodison Park.
Liverpool are second in the table, three points behind the leaders Arsenal, while they are one point ahead of third-placed Man City, who have two games in hand.
Klopp has claimed that his side now need "a crisis" to occur for their two title rivals in order to finish at the top of the pile come the end of the season.
"I really feel for the people. We never lost here (under Klopp) and it feels really different. I really apologise for that," Klopp told reporters after the Merseyside derby.
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Jurgen Klopp plays down Liverpool's title chances
When asked whether his side were still in the title race this season, he added: "I understand it, it's part of the business, but I don't know why I have to answer this question – obviously you can read the table.
"So, should I say now we are still fully in? We need a crisis at [Manchester] City and Arsenal, and need to win football games, because if they start now losing all the games and we do what we did tonight, nothing changed. And we are not safe in the Champions League as well so we should just play better football.
"You can see we are in a rush in front of the goal, you can see that. It's long ago but I blame a little bit the [Manchester] United game for it; that many chances and you play really good but you don't get anything for it.
"That's really bad. Since then, we create but we don't score often enough and that doesn't help. It's not like in a situation like that you don't score and then just [think], 'Ah, forget it, who cares?' You cannot act like you scored 15 goals in the last two games or whatever.
"You can see that and that's a problem. It's always like this: you have to fight through these periods, it was never different. People asked me already about mentality. The mentality has different aspects. It's not a problem of attitude. The boys want; nobody is doing anything like that on purpose.
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What have Liverpool got left to come this season?
"It's my job to bring them into a situation that they feel confident to do it. With that part, I'm responsible for everything that happened tonight, so it's not that I feel great. But that's the most tricky part of football obviously, and in the moment it didn't work out and now we have to keep trying."
Liverpool will be aiming to bounce back from their two-goal loss at Everton when they head to London on Saturday to take on West Ham United.
The Reds will then be back at Anfield on May 5 for a fixture with Tottenham Hotspur, before heading to Aston Villa in their penultimate match of the season on May 13.
Klopp's farewell game will then become against Wolverhampton Wanderers on the final matchday of the 2023-24 Premier League campaign.
Feyenoord head coach Arne Slot has emerged as the favourite to replace Klopp at Liverpool this summer, and the Merseyside club's captain Virgil van Dijk has talked-up the Dutchman's possible arrival at the club.
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