As far as Jürgen Klopp is concerned, Liverpool are suffering from an image problem. Their run-in to the end of the season does not appear too problematic but their record against lesser teams in the Premier League suggests it may be.

A perception has arisen that Liverpool struggle against teams that do not necessarily try to beat them but concentrate on keeping men behind the ball and Klopp feels it is inaccurate. “Of the last few games we have played against teams lower down the league we have won three and lost one and we still have the image that we lose all the time,” the Liverpool manager says.

“If that were the case, how would we have 69 points? You cannot be fighting for a Champions League place without picking up more points than you lose over the course of a season. We might have been doing better against the top sides than those below them but we are in the top four. We must have been doing a lot of things right.”

Southampton are the visitors to Anfield for the first of three Sunday kick-offs that will complete Liverpool’s season. Three wins and Klopp will be back in the Champions League for the first time since leaving Dortmund. He can barely disguise his happiness and relief that slip-ups by both Manchester clubs last Sunday handed the initiative back to his players but he is also aware that after losing to Crystal Palace games against Southampton, West Ham and Middlesbrough cannot be taken for granted, especially with Slaven Bilic’s future at his present club ostensibly riding on the middle one.

“We are not talking about winning all three games; our job is simply to win the next one,” Klopp says, acutely aware that the Anfield effect does not always work in the home team’s favour. “It’s a funny thing,” he says. “I really love the atmosphere at home; it’s No1. And if you are playing City, say, and you lose a challenge, or make a chance and don’t score, the reaction is not that negative. But if you are playing Crystal Palace and you make a chance and don’t score, it’s like the end of the world. You can practically feel the stadium going: ‘Oh my God, here we go again.’

“But what we all have to learn, even in the hard moments, is that creating a chance is always positive; it shows you are playing in the right way. Every team has to learn to build on these moments.

“Chelsea are not always bothered about excitement in the game. They are a wonderful football-playing side but they can also defend for 90 minutes, score one goal and enjoy it like hell.”

Klopp accepts that Chelsea and Tottenham are far and away the best two sides in England this season but hopes that once Champions League football is attained Liverpool can begin to make strides to match them. It is hardly a secret that leading players prefer to join clubs with Champions League prospects and although, when he first came to England, he was sufficiently purist to suggest he would not bother signing a player for whom European status would be a deal-breaker, two seasons in the Premier League have softened the German’s stance considerably.

“I have already forgot a lot of things I said in the past,” he says. “What I used to think is that, if it was only Champions League the player was looking at, then I don’t want him. But if the player has different options, we don’t want to be the only club that doesn’t offer Champions League. If he’s the right player, we have to take it.

“In Germany we say we have to eat a lot of frogs. Bite the bullet, I believe, is the English expression. Because the better the player, the more other clubs want him and we cannot always go in saying only that Liverpool is a wonderful city. There are a few other things you have to bring in and, if we can qualify, it would be a help, that’s for sure.”

At the moment it is still an if but it is in Liverpool’s hands once again and three wins on successive Sundays at least sounds achievable. “We need to be brave, not nervy,” Klopp says. “We are probably going to need every point. The situation at the moment is that no club in the top six can afford to waste points. We all need to fight with everything we have and that is what makes the league so exciting.”