Liverpool’s 3-0 loss at Vicarage Road on Saturday brought their impressive run of 18 consecutive wins to a dramatic close, with the Hornets’ convincing performance also denying them the opportunity to match Arsenal’s achievement of lifting the Premier League title undefeated in 2003/04.
It seemed as though the loss brought the Reds’ head coach relief, taking away the pressure to deliver this rare feat. He suggested in a post-match interview, as quoted by football365, that the events at Vicarage Road meant that Liverpool could ‘play free football again'.
But he set the record straight on Monday during his press conference ahead of Liverpool’s FA Cup fifth round clash with Chelsea, implying he wasn’t certain of his comment and claiming he can be wrong-footed by surprise questions from interviewers.
“It is a bit difficult. I don’t know what I said 100 per cent after the game,” Klopp told the press.
“I go in the dressing room then I go out and people confront me, like always, with questions which I didn’t think about until a second before.
“I say the things I say. If I say from now that we can play free football again, that would mean I felt we couldn’t do that before. I didn’t feel that, to be honest.
“Would we have loved to have won game number 19? Yes. Absolutely. But then you don’t win it and we know how difficult it is," he added.
“We don’t have to make it bigger. We lost a football game. Whenever it happens, it feels really average. Really, really bad. That’s how we felt.
“But it is not like we are now relieved of all the pressure and we can focus on football again. It was just an answer, to be honest, without long thinking!”
Liverpool will hope to recover form in Tuesday's FA Cup tie at Stamford Bridge. The Reds have lifted seven FA Cup trophies, and if they progress tonight they’ll be a step closer to their first final since 2016.
Source : 90min