Jurgen Klopp doesn’t believe there are any positives from the defeat to Atletico Madrid this week. He’s wrong, however – this could be the making of the team.
Liverpool struggled against Atletico. Their hosts sat back and decided to take a 1-0 win after just three minutes – and that’s exactly what they got.
The Reds couldn’t create chances, unfortunately, and Atletico controlled them game, even without the ball.
And speaking three days later, Klopp doesn’t believe the defeat to Atletico carried positives.
“It’s a little bit strange, yes we lost the game and there’s absolutely no positive in it, we lost the game,” he said, per the official club site. “But it’s important if there’s any help in that result it’s that you felt that defeat and it felt like a defeat.”
That final comment is the key one. Even if Klopp doesn’t immediately see the positives, his team tasting defeat can be a good thing.
Winning and winning and winning risks breeding complacency. Even with a team as mentally-strong as Liverpool, there is that risk. So a little speedbump can actually be a very good thing. Especially at this stage.
If it gets Liverpool thinking again, rather than playing almost in routine, then that’s a massive positive. They won’t take anything for granted for the rest of the season now nor, importantly, that second leg.
Cast your minds back to last season, for instance. Barcelona got their reminder in a Champions League semi-final second-leg – there wasn’t really any time to learn from that.
Liverpool will learn from this, though. And they’ll be better as a result.
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