Jurgen Klopp claims that Liverpool "are not far away" from being serious Premier League title challengers, despite dropping more points against Newcastle United.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has insisted that he is confident his side will soon emerge from their difficult period and close the gap on the early pacesetters.

The Reds are currently seventh in the Premier League, seven points adrift of Manchester City and Manchester United after winning one of their last four top-flight games.

Klopp admits that his side must start sticking away their chances if they are to have any hope of challenging at the top, having seen the goals dry up of late, but he is hopeful that the gap at the top is not too big with seven months of the season still left to go.

"I can talk about our football and the points we get for it, and then we talk about the gap between us and other teams," he told reporters. "We have, obviously, our hard moments; other teams will have hard moments.

"We have had hard moments and we have to work on our thing. I really think that it looks like we are not far away from a real challenger, so if we do what we are good at and we can score more goals, then we will win games and we don't have to think about other teams.

"We will close the gap, however big it is, and we will see where we end. But it's all about our own situation, not thinking about where the others are."

Liverpool, who drew 1-1 with Newcastle United in their most recent outing on Sunday, play host to Man United on October 14 when returning to league action.