Man City are on course for the title, but Liverpool can aim to be best of the rest, says manager Jurgen Klopp

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp says his Premier League ambition for the rest of the season is to become ‘the best of the rest’ as Manchester City stride towards the title.

Any hope of Liverpool competing for the championship have been undermined by seven draws in 17 games. They have been beaten only twice – by City and Spurs – but dropped a massive 18 points behind the leaders in midweek.

Klopp is realistic about the prospects of cutting that deficit – he has written off the chances of anyone catching City - but argues his team can still make significant progress.

“This season nobody is really fighting anymore for the title. I don’t think United are,” said Klopp.

“We will all try to come as close as possible but if City doesn’t have any drop then they will probably win it so does that mean all the others have to stop? To be the best of the rest could be a fantastic target. So it is to try to have the best position in the table which for us – for the last I don’t know how many years – is probably third or second.

“Yes others are ahead of us as well in the moment but our performances show we could do it if we bring our skills often enough on the pitch. That’s what we are thinking about. Anything else would only disturb. I can’t imagine why we would think about things that would disturb our development. It’s our situation.”

Klopp can identify similarities between Liverpool’s current position and the development he oversaw in Dortmund in the shadow of Bayern Munich's wealth and power. In his first two full seasons at Borussia Dortmund he finished sixth and fifth before guiding the club to back-to-back titles.

At Anfield, gradual improvement has always been the reasonable aim.

“If you make your own targets because of your neighbour then you can never move on,” said Klopp.

“You want to have the nicer garden, the nicer garage or the nicer car then you will always be a little bit behind. You have to make your own targets and go for it. You maybe face the other team twice a season, maybe more in FA Cup for the third time or in the Champions League for the fourth and the fifth time. That’s probably possible. Usually you only face them twice and that’s the only moment you should be concerned about them or think about them. There is no other chance. We cannot chase City, like we couldn’t chase Bayern [Munich] in these times but we could have beaten them in the Champions league final – that’s 100 per cent.

“We were not worse, it was an open game and nobody saw in this game a team 25 points ahead. We didn’t play a bad season, we got to the Champions League final and had some of our best moments in our life in that campaign. The games against Bayern were always close. They were not in the specific games against us five classes better or something.”

Klopp will have Adam Lallana back in his squad at Bournemouth and recall Simon Mignolet.