Jurgen Klopp doesn’t agree with Joey Barton’s assessment of his Liverpool side.
Earlier this week, Barton slammed the Reds’ manager’s impact on the team since arriving in 2015.
Before claiming that Klopp’s “ego is in overdrive,” Barton insisted that Liverpool were going in the wrong direction under the German’s guidance.
“Liverpool are getting closer to the other sides than they are to winning the league,” Barton said on talkSPORT.
“They are actually regressing under Jurgen Klopp. They are not getting any closer to wining the league.
“Manchester City are now 14 points ahead of them having played the same amount of games. They are closer to West Ham, who are in the relegation zone, than they are to the top of the table.”
It was put to Klopp during a press conference on Tuesday that his side had regressed and it was clear that he didn’t agree.
Having faced heavy criticism for his team selection for Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea, Klopp was adamant that his team had improved.
“Yes, we’ve made progress 100 per cent,” Klopp claimed ahead of his side’s trip to Stoke.
“We’ve been more patient in the right way in specific games. Last year we had really, really good performances (against the top teams), but now we are in a new season and we feel in a really good way.
“Chelsea are an unbelievably difficult team to play, we played them in a completely different manner. We dominated them. That’s fantastic. We didn’t win, but I still feel we are in a good way.
“This is now a really decisive period of the season. We need to be spot on. We have to show that we’re in a good way until at least the end of January, in a really important part of the season. My feeling is we are.
“I have faith in all the boys and it was important for me that the boys showed they are 100 per cent ready.”
