Jurgen Klopp Talks Liverpool Frustration, Jamie Vardy, More After Leicester Loss

Jurgen Klopp said he needed to calm down following Liverpool's 2-0 Premier League defeat by Leicester City on Tuesday, with the German insisting his side could have been much better. 

The Reds were downed by a Jamie Vardy double, the first of which was a stunning 25-yard half-volley that flew past a helpless Simon Mignolet and will undoubtedly be a contender for goal of the season.

Klopp praised Vardy's excellence but was clearly unimpressed with his own side's poor performance at the King Power Stadium, per Luke Gardener in the Daily Star:

"

It's rare a journalist says something more positive than the manager. 

I'm not too fine with our game today. We could have played much better. We had a few shots where we could pass and a few passes where we could shoot. 

We created half chances but not real chances. It was a world-class goal from Jamie Vardy. 

Today would have been a good day to show we are ready for this. I need a few more seconds to calm down. I have to watch it again.

"

The German acknowledged that there were good elements to Liverpool's play, but he rued the lack of chances created against "perfect" Leicester, per Sky Sports' Patrick Surlis:

"

It's the perfect season for Leicester and the perfect season for Jamie Vardy. They deserve every point they get and Jamie has deserved every goal he's scored until now. I was close to clapping my hands to be honest but I just felt too bad at that moment. [...]

I think we had a good plan and a good style of play. The way we forced ourselves to play football was important. [...]

We had a lot of opportunities to cross but our crosses were not exact. We then had some situations when we could have passed but we shot and others where we could have shot but we passed. It was not 10 clear-cut chances and so I don't feel too good at this moment.

"

The loss means Liverpool have now picked up only four points from a possible 15 in their last five league games, their only victory coming against Norwich City when Adam Lallana scored in stoppage time to seal a 5-4 win in a quite ludicrous encounter.

The Reds now sit in eighth place in the Premier League, 11 points off the top four with 14 matches remaining, with their Champions League ambitions effectively in tatters.

However, there are more pressing issues for Klopp to deal with than finishing in the top four.

Per the Liverpool Echo's James Pearce, the German was well within his rights to be upset with Tuesday's performance given how inept the Reds looked in all departments:

They have been mightily inconsistent throughout Klopp's short tenure, and he has yet to engineer any significant improvement from the current Liverpool squad, per BreatheSport:

"

After first 16 PL games as Liverpool manager:

Roy Hodgson: 22 pts
Brendan Rodgers: 22 pts
Jurgen Klopp: 22 pts pic.twitter.com/uvyWEiQUy5

— BreatheSport (@BreatheSport) February 3, 2016"

There are extenuating circumstances given that Klopp is working with a group of players not put together by him, but by his predecessor, Brendan Rodgers.

However, Liverpool's inactivity in the recent winter transfer window will undoubtedly have upset fans, especially as Alex Teixeira looked to be a nailed-on signing, per Bleacher Report's Sam Tighe:

Undoubtedly January is not the ideal time to do business in the transfer market and Klopp is surely targeting the summer as the time when he will make major personnel changes to his squad.

But it means he will have to go through the rest of the 2015-16 campaign with the current crop, and based on Tuesday's performance, that is a daunting prospect.

Europa League qualification is certainly not out of the question, but considering the Reds' current lack of quality in attack and leaky defence, they may struggle to move up the table.

Their next two Premier League fixtures are against relegation-battling Sunderland and Aston Villa, matches Liverpool surely have to win if they are to salvage a rapidly declining season.