Jurgen Klopp insists back-to-back defeats haven't dented Liverpool's belief in pursuit of the Premier League crown.

The Reds will be gunning to secure their first win of 2019 when they take on Brighton at the Amex Stadium on Saturday.

Liverpool, who are four points clear at the top, lost their proud unbeaten record to title rivals Manchester City and then a much-changed line up crashed out of the FA Cup to Wolves.

But Klopp says that the circumstances surrounding those games means that the feelgood factor in the squad hasn't been dented ahead of the showdown on the South Coast.

“You don't lose a game in the first half of the season, then lose one and lose your head immediately. That would be strange,” Klopp said.

“That would not in general be the right thing to do. That's a moment where your team could be sitting in the dressing room and think: 'Is he mad?!'

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“Anyway, it was not that bad. We talk about Man City and it was unlucky. It was what? 11millimetres (from crossing the line)? Whatever, not a lot, and otherwise we get a point and that's a brilliant result at City.

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“Then we go to Wolves and I make the changes, it's not the boys who make the changes. I make the changes so that says more about me than the team, so no let's carry on.

“Do we have to do different things? Yes, we always do different things to be honest so that's not a big problem because we try to prepare for the next opponent.

“It's a normal situation, it's still very positive. If we would have had one point more than City, then gone to City and won, we'd have four points more than them. If you want you can see it like this.

“It is only important for us how many more points we have than City at the end of the season. At the moment it is only information, not more.

“Did we win it already? No. Can we win it? Yes. Will it be easy? No. No problem, it is a normal Premier League game away. They are all difficult. So let's try our best. There is no reason to go there feeling less confident.”

Klopp is adamant that he has no regrets about making nine changes for the trip to Wolves.

Teenagers Curtis Jones, Rafa Camacho and Ki-Jana Hoever were all handed debuts on a night when senior players on the fringes of Klopp's squad failed to deliver.

It will certainly be a very different line up which takes to the field at Brighton. Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino are set to return, along with the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Gini Wijnaldum, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson.

Joel Matip and Jordan Henderson are back in full training with Brazilian midfielder Fabinho ready to start at centre-back if Klopp decides not to risk Matip. Dejan Lovren, Joe Gomez and Adam Lallana remain sidelined.

Jurgen Klopp on the potential of Liverpool's youngsters

“I don't regret the team I picked at all because I couldn't do it differently,” Klopp said.

“Dejan wasn't in the plan for the game, he was not, and then the night before the game Hendo had this injury. So it was a case of putting Dejan in or Ki-Jana.

“Starting with Ki-Jana would be a big deal. So it was 'okay, how are you Dejan? 'Fine, all good'. 'Okay, so you play' – that was the situation.

“So it was a proper team. Without rhythm, I know that. But it was a proper team.

“Did we play brilliant? No, but we were in the game. Wolves played with their first team. We played them before and it was difficult.

“We played a lot of good football, the build up was brilliant and then we were not really clear enough in the last third.

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“Then again I start talking about the wind. The wind was an issue. People don't like to hear it, but it was! I can't always say what people want to hear. So they then score a goal from 30 yards. Good goal, accept that, we hit the post.

“Playing in the cup against Wolves away, it will be a difficult game all day long. We lost the game. Again, I would still stick to the plan I had in my mind before, and Dejan would not have been involved.”

January hasn't been a great month for the Reds during Klopp's reign.

In 2016 they lost to West Ham and Manchester United in the league and only scrambled through to the League Cup final on penalties after being beaten at home by Stoke.

The following January they were defeated home and away by Southampton in the League Cup, knocked out of the FA Cup by Wolves and lost to Swansea in the league.

A year ago the Reds also lost at Swansea in the league and saw their interest in the FA Cup ended by West Brom.

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Liverpool can't afford another bout of the January blues against Brighton. They have the opportunity to move seven points clear.

"So far we've lost one Premier League game in January and that was Manchester City away, that's not a sign of a bad record in January," Klopp added.

"It's just a sign of a really difficult game. I've never felt bad in January. It's just that December is a tough month to go through for all of us.

"We have to build on that basis physically and thank God most of the boys can do that because they have stayed healthy. Let's build on that."

Klopp insists he hasn't felt the need to reassure his players after the blip of the past two results.

“If you point a finger then it's even bigger than before you spoke about it so there's no reason for doing it," he said.

"Nothing happened, each team in the world can lose at Man City.

“We spoke about why, what we did, what happened, what we could have done better – but that's how we do it always. There is nothing on top to talk about.

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"It is only for people who are insecure and say 'this has happened and now they are going in completely the other direction, they have lost belief'.

"But we have to prove (that is not the case). We have to prove it on the pitch again."