'We've had more time at Melwood and now we must react'
Being without a midweek game has enabled Jürgen Klopp and his players to spend more time on solving the issues that contributed to their defeat to Tottenham Hotspur.
Liverpool return to action on Saturday when Huddersfield Town visit Anfield, six days on from that 4-1 reverse at Wembley.
Excluding international breaks, this week represents the first time this season that Klopp’s team have not played a midweek fixture - and the manager has taken full advantage of that gap by working intently with his squad at Melwood.
“We worked more of course because we had the time for it and we still have today one more session,” Klopp told reporters at Friday’s pre-match press conference.
“Yes, of course you have to react on the things that happened in the last game or last games, but I cannot make the last game bigger than all the other games. But it was the freshest impression if you want and it didn’t feel good after the game.
“We said everything about it - it was not enough and we have to show more in pretty much each department, that’s the effect, so yes, we worked on it, of course.”
A tactical switch involved Dejan Lovren being substituted in the first half of the loss to Spurs, but Klopp praised the centre-back for his response to that decision.
“Look, I don’t wish one of you to make a mistake that is discussed in public, you cannot even imagine, you have not even an idea how it feels. The boys are in the first case still human beings,” the boss said.
“We had a normal week. It was not the nicest week in Dejan’s life but at the end it’s only football and we have to know about this and people don’t become a better or worse person after making a mistake in a football game. That’s how it is.
“If I think about Dejan I have as much, or much more positive things that I can think about than negative things. That’s easy if you want to do it - he is a player of Liverpool and that’s how I treat him, as a member of this family, and it is clear I help him if I think I have to help him.
“But at the end it’s up to you, what you make of stories like this. If you celebrate yourself and are happy about having stories like this, or if you pull down because the world of social media is difficult enough to handle I would say, that’s why I am not part of it [and] I have no idea why people are doing it to be honest, but that’s not my problem.
“But yes, everything is OK. Dejan had a good training week, we will see what we will do tomorrow line-up wise, but it’s not about the last game it’s about the next game, the Huddersfield game, what we think will be the best line-up. That’s all.”