Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp finds positives despite penalty shoot-out defeat to Atletico Madrid

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Liverpool suffered a penalty shoot-out defeat to Atletico Madrid in the Audi Cup final, but manager Jurgen Klopp refused to be downbeat as his team went toe-to-toe with Europe’s elite in the competition. While the showpiece event was rather more drab than the teams involved might have suggested, both fielded much-changed lineups for a second match in two days and the Reds were largely on top throughout, despite not creating enough clear chances.

Klopp highlighted as such after the game, hinting he was more preoccupied with instilling fitness and style rather than taking silverware in a pre-season tournament. “We lost the shoot-out but I’m not down and out about it. You couldn’t have a more difficult job than against a team like Atletico who get results, results, results,” he said. “If you get to a penalty shoot-out you want to win it, but the boys played really well and it was very good in our preparations.

“It’s important you’re prepared for games and have the right state of mind, but we played against Bayern and were very tired today. You want to make life as difficult as possible for opponents; we just conceded a goal today, but had 20 chances—you have to do something out of that, but Atletico are a very strong team.”

Not being beaten in a competition involving such teams, pre-season or not, will be extremely pleasing to Klopp as he looks to build on last year’s fourth-place finish in the Premier League. Competition will be fierce to even remain at the same level, let alone improve to move above one of Chelsea, Tottenham or Manchester City, but the Liverpool boss isn’t reigning in expectations.

“It’s easy for next season: we want to be as good as possible and better than last year, which isn’t easy. We don’t set limits to ourselves, some opponents might but we don’t.

“The boys have been great. They’ve done everything expected of them, they had a very intensive programme and I’m very happy with it. We’ve got to get the freshness we didn’t have today, but there’s still one-and-a-half weeks to go and still time to prepare.”

Liverpool still have one game left of their pre-season preparations, against Athletic Club in Dublin on August 5, and the manager still has decisions to make over his starting lineup for the league opener—particularly at full-back. Whoever gets the nod to face the Spanish side will have a final opportunity to impress and Klopp admitted Nathaniel Clyne is unlikely to be ready in time.

“Clyne is on the way back but he’s had no pre-season. It’s impossible for Watford, so we have three options: Trent [Alexander-Arnold], Joe [Gomez] and [Jon] Flanagan; all of them played the position and now we bring them through the next week, Clyne comes back and we’ll make a decision.”