Jurgen Klopp would have only been concerned with progression in the Champions League when he arrived at Anfield to face Inter Milan.
Speaking with the media after the game, the boss shared some words of wisdom from his assistant manager that do seem very apt at this moment in time.
The 54-year-old said: “Pete Krawietz always says the art of football is to lose the right games. I still hate it but if there was any kind of game we could have afforded to lose, it was tonight because the main target obviously of this competition is to get through.
“But it’s not that I’m here like over the moon. I’m really happy that we went through because obviously when we saw the draw in the first place it was like, ‘OK, that’s a tough one.’
“So we went through and I think over the two legs we deserved it. That’s fine.
“That we had some problems in the game tonight was [for] different reasons, one is the quality of the opponent – they are a really good football team.
“And their set-up – we know that in the league a little bit from Leeds under Bielsa – just with much more quality and that makes it really tricky to play against them.
“But we still had our chances and didn’t score.
“When I think about the game, I didn’t like our counter-press, I don’t think we won any kind of ball back in the first 20 minutes.
“You have to be kind of expansive when you open up, when you are in possession, but when you lose the ball – and we lost the ball obviously in strange moments – then you have to chase the situation.
“And that was not exactly how I wanted it. But in the end, we have to respect the quality of the opponent. We do that. How I said, it’s a big if – we didn’t score – but if we would have used our chances from set-pieces, from other situations, it was then a bit slapstick how we missed the chances in the end, we still could have won the game.
“That’s the only thing I’m interested in, that it’s fair that we are through, against a really strong opponent. Now let’s carry on”.
It’s good that we can lose a game, still progress in the competition and now hopefully be able to use it to our advantage for the rest of the season.
Thankfully the players are surrounded by some brilliant minds and leaders, who will ensure we use this for our benefit.
You can watch Klopp’s comments via our Twitter account @empireofthekop:
🗣️"Pete Krawietz always says, 'the art of football is to lose the right games'."
Jurgen Klopp responds to #LFC losing at Anfield 👀 pic.twitter.com/3Mffr3UW5h
— Empire of the Kop (@empireofthekop) March 8, 2022
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