After Liverpool went out of the Europa League to Atalanta, Jurgen Klopp admitted he was “disappointed” but pointed to positives as he said Liverpool were “back to winning ways.”
Despite winning 1-0 at Atalanta, Liverpool’s second-half performance left fans disappointed at a missed opportunity to mount a comeback.
Following the match, Klopp told TNT Sports: “I liked the game a lot for a long time. The commitment, the desire, the power the boys showed was incredible.”
The performance was an improvement on the last two outings, but there was little to hang your hat on in terms of positivity from the game.
"It didn't go our way but I liked the way we played"
Jurgen Klopp gives his assessment on Liverpool's #UEL quarter-final second leg with Atalanta…
?? @DannyJamieson | #UEL pic.twitter.com/QMsySlZhnH
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) April 18, 2024
“Atalanta deserved to go through 100 percent, that’s fine, and can now we focus on the league and that is exactly what we will do from now on,” Klopp added.
“We created 67 shots in the three games that we didn’t win one of. That’s really strange.”
The manager is right to point out that Liverpool have no doubt been unlucky in front of goal, but the tie against Atalanta weren’t lost due to poor finishing.
It was lost because the Reds couldn’t track their runners in the first leg and couldn’t maintain attacks in the second leg.
The German continued: “Tonight we won the game, we are back to winning ways, we have two-and-a-half-ish days time to make sure we recover to go against Fulham – that will be a tricky one, different but tricky.
“We have to see who can go again but this tonight was the reaction we had to show, the boys showed. I’m not surprised, they always do that.
“Obviously mixed emotions; disappointed that we are out but happy with big parts of the game.”
The Reds can’t afford to let recent results get in their heads as they prepare for six games that could lead us to forget this Europa League fiasco, if they were to be won.
Klopp finished by saying: “Let’s put a line under this competition. We would have wished for our people to go to Dublin but obviously that now didn’t happen.
“We have one competition left and we have throw everything we have into that.”
It is a message that supporters and players may as well heed. It is fine to be sad that Liverpool are out of Europe, but it won’t help their league chances.
There is a small chance the Premier League can be won and, while that chance remains, we must go for it.
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