Jurgen Klopp has offered a new explanation for Liverpool’s Champions League final defeat in May.
Liverpool surprised everyone by reaching the showpiece in Kiev but were undone in the final by Real Madrid after a memorable journey.
They lost 3-1 after two high-profile mistakes from Loris Karius, with Real captain Sergio Ramos the chief antagoniser.
Klopp branded Ramos a “wrestler” after the game, the Spaniard having played a key role in Karius’ apparent concussion and the first-half injury sustained by Mohamed Salah.
Both incidents have been used by Klopp in the aftermath to explain the defeat, but he says his squad had also been stretched by the end of the season.
“We had a fantastic season last year, although the result of the Champions League final was not what we were hoping for,” he told France Football.
“Nobody was waiting for us there, even though, as the season progressed, we thought that the final was a possible goal.
“Everyone knows that Mo Salah’s injury has changed things. But not only that. We are not going to rewrite the story, but we played the last two months of last season with twelve valid players.
“We had to fight with Chelsea until the end.”
Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool’s burgeoning collection of midfielders “all work”.
Liverpool added Naby Keita and Fabinho to a midfield already containing Jordan Henderson, Georginio Wijnaldum, James Milner, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Adam Lallana.
The latter two are currently injured, while Emre Can left in the summer to join Juventus, but Klopp’s midfield ranks are certainly as good as they have ever been.
The German says they all share one thing in common: a willingness to work hard.
“Naby had six weeks’ pre-season with us. Together with Millie and Gini, they had all of the pre-season. That’s really good,” Klopp told Liverpoolfc.com.
“You saw that helped a lot and helped him; organisation always helps. And in the moments when he gets the ball, you can see he is quite a nice footballer.
“What Gini and Millie did was quite impressive, I have to say. That’s good, we need that.
“At the end it looks like 4-0 is quite comfortable but I’m pretty sure that all three midfielders – or at least these two – had to run 13km or more. You have to work really hard so a game can look like that.
“The good thing is all our midfielders – Hendo, Adam [Lallana] – all work. They accept the offensive line sometimes has not exactly the same desire to defend, so they close the gaps and help us with that. That makes their life a bit more uncomfortable, but helps us in other situations.”
Klopp has also discussed France’s World Cup victory in Russia this summer.
The Liverpool boss may now stand accused of having a dig at Didier Deschamps, as he suggested the French coach took the fun out of his team:
France had the right players and the right tactics. Didier Deschamps could have done quite something else with this team.
Let them play, run, excite the whole planet to show how beautiful French football was. But he showed great maturity. He calmed and disciplined everyone, even making the games sometimes a bit boring.
The job of a manager is to use the qualities of his team in the best way.