Dejan Lovren has urged Liverpool to show a stronger mental streak as they seek to recover from their latest disappointment in Tuesday s League Cup semi-final first leg at Stoke City.
Manager Jurgen Klopp s hopes of ending his first season in English football with a top-four Premier League finish and a place in next season s Champions League suffered a blow when Liverpool started the new year with a 2-0 defeat at West Ham United on Saturday.
The German was angered by his team s display, but his debut season at Anfield could yet end with silverware as Liverpool stand just two games from a Wembley meeting with either Manchester City or neighbours Everton.
Lovren acknowledged that his manager had every right to vent his anger following the West Ham game, the Croatian centre-back saying: “We are disappointed. It wasn t the best performance from us and we need to be angry with ourselves.
“I don t know the reasons why, but we need to step up quickly from this because we don t have time to think about it now, because we have the game with Stoke on Tuesday.
“We definitely need to change our mentality and we need to keep a better run of games and to fight more. It was two easy goals conceded, I would say.
“We have a game in the cup against Stoke and it s a big chance for us to get to the final.
“So we need to stay calm and say tomorrow is a new day and we ll start to prepare for the Stoke game and try to be in the final.”
Liverpool, whose last major honour was the 2012 League Cup, also get their FA Cup campaign under way at Exeter City on Friday, but Klopp is adamant that a busy January schedule holds no fears for him.
