Jurgen Klopp, manager of Liverpool, asked the club to "change things" so they can get their stability and consistency back as he spoke to reporters at the press conference on Friday ahead of a Premier League game against Crystal Palace.

"Conceding five in the Champions League is not acceptable, but it happened anyway," Klopp referred to Liverpool's 5-2 loss to Real Madrid in the first-leg game of the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 competitions at Anfield on Tuesday.

"We have to change things. The first half [against Madrid] was really good; the second half was the worst start. A lot of things are back but not stable yet," the German manager added. "We need to find some consistency in the way we play. It cannot be all about emotions ... We just have to start believing in ourselves again and bring our quality on the pitch."

Liverpool had a poor start in the Premier League this season partly because of injuries and the departures of key players. They were knocked out from both the FA Cup and the Carabao Cup. The club's performance began to pick up recently as they beat Everton and Newcastle United. They are currently eighth on the Premier League's standings table with 35 points after 22 games.

Liverpool will visit the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu to play Real again in the second-leg game of the Champions League Round of 16 on March 15. "The Reds" haven't beaten the Spanish heavyweights even once in their past seven meetings. In fact, Liverpool lost six of those games.

"I'm sorry that I cannot guarantee Champions League in this moment, but we'll fight for it," Klopp said at the press conference. "It's not done yet, so we don't have to talk about it as if it's not possible. But we have to start doing work earlier than before we know where we will end up position-wise and European competition-wise."

Despite the difficult situation Liverpool are in, Klopp believes they shouldn't be too rash on making the injured players return.

"Ibou (Ibrahima Konate) is near but he had [only] two sessions after a long injury. We can see that the boys aren't at their best. We are not sure all the boys can play yet after Madrid because of knocks," Klopp said.

"We want to make changes and we will make changes, but when players come back from long injuries, it takes time. We have this situation now with Bobby [Firmino] and Diogo [Jota], we can see it with Virgil [van Dijk] as well," he added. "Everybody expects Virgil is like a robot, but he played the most games last year, played the World Cup, played every game for his country, came back, from the first second played for us, got injured, comes back [and] plays, plays, plays."