Jurgen Klopp spoke to reporters ahead of Liverpool's Premier League clash against Burnley at Anfield on Thursday night.

The Reds host Sean Dyche's side as they look to overcome poor form in recent weeks, with just one win in their last five league games.

It's a record that has seen them lose first place in the table, with Man United, Man City and Leicester all taking advantage and going above the champions.

Klopp was asked what it would take to retain the Premier League title this season and the Reds boss conceded it would require "close to perfection" from his players.

"Again, close to perfection but ‘perfection' depends on the situation," Klopp said.

"There is no perfect season with 114 points, there is just dealing with circumstances, dealing with the situation and dealing with the amount of games and these kind of things. We have to be as perfect as possible and that's what we all try.

"Pretty much all the teams had meanwhile kind of a dip here and there and some sorted it already [while] some are on the way to sorting it. That's the situation. I understand 100 per cent the need to talk all the time about it but we cannot change it just in a minute.

"You can imagine the day is 24 hours, we think about a lot of stuff and most of the things the public thinks about we think about as well, but not all of them. And for sure somebody has to be calm in this kind of situation, it's not a catastrophe or whatever, our situation.

"It's not perfect but that's not important because it's just really to be as good as you can be and I saw a lot of good signs in the Man United game and if we would have won that game everybody would have seen them.

"Because we didn't win, then nobody was interested in it. That cannot change my view."

Liverpool could welcome back Joel Matip after the Cameroonian narrowly missed making a return from injury against Man United at the weekend.

However, there was no positive news on Diogo Jota, with the Portuguese forward set to remain sidelined for a few more weeks.

“So, first and foremost, Joel is in full training,” Klopp said.

“Now we have to make a decision and we will see how that will be until tomorrow. Yesterday he trained completely normal.

“Diogo is still a few weeks away, I don't know exactly how long but it will not be in the next one or two weeks. He needs time, the injury needs time.”

The boss also offered his thoughts on the Clarets, who could be an extremely tricky side for the Reds to face given their lack of goalscoring form.

Burnley's last four matches have all ended in a 1-0 scoreline, with Dyche's side showcasing their ability to stifle their opponents for large periods of the 90 minutes.

"When you look at the goal difference, I think it's nine-22, that means obviously they didn't score a lot of goals but they don't concede a lot as well," Klopp said.

"So that just shows us how tough the game will be, but it was always like this against Burnley: a proper fight, second-ball fight, defending the channel balls, defending the intensity - Burnley puts in a specific intensity - and all these kind of things.

"Ben Mee is a very, very important player for Burnley, I knew that before, that's clear. They have a really settled line-up, not only with Tarkowski and Mee, but these two and Pope, these three players I think are the heart of the team.

"Then they have the strikers up front who work their socks off and good footballers in midfield. That's the situation. They play a specific way and I really respect that.

"They do it for years and Sean is always able to squeeze really good performances out of the squad, even when it's not the biggest squad in the world and of course if they have injuries that hurts them maybe even more than other teams.

"But that's the situation, they know that [and] they deal with it very well and we have to face it."