Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp has insisted he is not disappointed to have missed out on setting a new Premier League record points tally.
The Reds needed seven points from their final three games to equal Manchester City's record of 100, while nine points would have seen them set a new standard. However, the 2-1 loss to Arsenal on Wednesday evening means Liverpool can now only reach 99.
They did still set the record for the earliest title victory (and technically the latest), and Klopp insisted (via The Mirror) that he only wants to focus on the positive aspects of his historic season.
"No [I'm not disappointed], not yet at least, I don't know if it comes," he said. "But it's just I want the points we can get and we will see what it is at the end of the season.
"I cannot make any negative of something really positive, becoming champion, having so early in the season 93 points, I'm not the type of person who makes something negative of it because we cannot get the 100 or two points anymore.
"We get the points we deserve and we will see how many that will be.
"In the moment it's 93, two games to go, very difficult games, but two games to go and these boys played an exceptional season and nobody can take that away from them.
"But I'm not happy about the game, I'm the opposite, I'm disappointed, angry about a few things, but the game, the game was good and the attitude is good, but we took a break and that's not good and that's why we lost the game."
When pressed on his side's performance, which featured uncharacteristic errors from Alisson and Virgil van Dijk, Klopp admitted that Liverpool are only human and cannot be expected to be perfect forever.
Mistakes happen. That’s part of football. But it’s how you react to them that matters. Two big games to go, let’s finish strong! Can’t wait for next Wednesday! ?? pic.twitter.com/E7kXHwT23x
— Virgil van Dijk (@VirgilvDijk) July 15, 2020
"We were very dominant, a lot of good football," he admitted (via the club's official website). "In the end, why are we in the situation we are? Because we are a very good football team and we usually work on a concentration level that is nearly 'unhuman'. Today we made some human errors, which is not so nice but not completely surprising that it can happen whenever. Tonight it happened.
"Usually we learn from situations like this, we will do that now again. The boys don’t want to hide or say, ‘It’s not my fault’ or whatever, that’s all clear on the table. But around that, I don’t think I ever played a game with 24 to three shots against Arsenal, I can’t remember that. There are a lot of goals usually when we play against each other, but not that many tonight – at least on our side. But that dominance we never had before, I can’t remember it at least. So I’m happy about that."
For more from Tom Gott, follow him on Twitter!
Source : 90min