Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has admitted that the Reds’ Premier League title defence is over this season.

The admission came on the wake of a 3-1 thrashing at the hands of Leicester City at the King Power Stadium on Saturday. With this loss, Liverpool lost their third consecutive Premier League game in this season, which is a first under Klopp.

The Reds now find themselves 13 points behind Manchester City, who are placed at the top of the table. Liverpool are now sitting at the fourth spot but that could change soon as fourth-placed Chelsea and fifth-placed West Ham United, both on 39 points, play relatively easy opponents at home on Monday.

“Yes. I don’t think we can close the gap this year, to be honest,” Klopp told reporters after their loss against Leicester City on Saturday.

“We have to win football games, and a large part of our game today was very good. What we need to try to avoid are mistakes and misunderstandings. In two situations today we didn’t do that and that’s how they were allowed to score two goals,” he added.

“Results are massively related to the performance – we were good enough today to win the game apart from a couple of mistakes towards the end.

“Before the game, we all knew that Ozan [Kabak] is a really good player and we know that afterwards as well but he’s not used to all the things we do. Ali [Alisson] is offensive and likes to come out of his goal.

“When you are new together this usually happens but it happens in pre-season. Unfortunately, we’ve not had that. We’re not worrying about the title, we’re not silly.

“We have a tough game on Tuesday and then the derby next week. That’s what we’re thinking about.”

Liverpool have already suffered a lot but they will now be desperate to put an end to their misery. Their sights are now off the Premier League title now, so they must ensure that they don’t fall further down the table. Only four points separate them from Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur, who are placed at the eighth and ninth spots respectively.