Jurgen Klopp remains convinced his philosophy will eventually take Liverpool to glory... even if he admits it sometimes leaves him chasing miracles.
The Reds boss will show his stubborn determination by axing keeper Simon Mignolet to give Loris Karius a Champions League chance in Wednesday's group stage opener at home to Sevilla, despite the inevitable criticism he will face if it backfires.
Klopp held his hands up on Tuesday to confess to getting it wrong by continuing with his all-out attacking policy even with 10 men against rampant Manchester City at the weekend.
“It’s okay, the criticism. Whoever said it was right. I felt the same after the game. Maybe I should have changed things. In the second half I had a big part (in our performance),” he admitted.
“It was clear we needed a miracle but if you don’t try to make a miracle come true, then you will never have it! It’s true, I was still offensive in the second half, I know all that, and criticism was right.”
Sevilla, who beat Liverpool in the Europa League final 16 months ago, are their biggest rivals on paper in a group also containing Spartak Moscow and Maribor and Klopp knows the criticism he faced on Saturday will be nothing compared to the storm a poor performance by Karius will invoke.
The German coach knows there are many who are ready to pour scorn if he axes the man regarded as number one, in favour of his young countryman, who has had such a tough time at Anfield.
But the Anfield boss simply doesn’t care about that – and instead he will stick to his beliefs that he can’t have a natural hierarchy with his goalkeepers, because they are all on the same level, including third-choice Danny Ward.
“I decided already who is the goalkeeper tomorrow and then we will see. If nothing happens overnight, Loris will start,” he explained. “I prefer having a group of good goalkeepers, and that means you have to change things.
“The game against Arsenal was exactly the same, it was very intense.
“Could he prove something? I think he did.
"He was very cool with the ball, I know for some people [he was] too cool with the ball but that can happen with no rhythm, so that now he has had the game it helped him a lot, us also and now he will start tomorrow.”
Asked if that means Mignolet is no longer his number one, Klopp responded with barely disguised anger and disdain: “Of course not.
“The situation I can say with absolute truth. If we have Simon as number one and play the other goalkeepers not once throughout the year...
“If we don’t give them a game then every year we have to find a number two, [who is] 32 years old, still can catch a few balls and doesn’t want to play any more — that’s really difficult to find someone like that.
“That’s the plan — not to keep them happy. No, to use the quality of the goalkeepers and that’s how it is, to keep them altogether and then they will decide with the performance who will play.
“Why do we think [the hierarchy of] number 1, 2, 3 is fixed until the end of all days? I don’t want to bring that in doubt, but how can you ask if he’s number one?
“By the way, it’s not that he shouldn’t be number one. But if all the players are not happy with the decision, I don’t know – it’s nothing I can think about too much.”
PROBABLE TEAMS
LIVERPOOL Karius; Gomez, Matip, Lovren, Moreno; Can, Henderson, Coutinho; Salah, Firmino, Mane.
SEVILLA Rico; Mercado, Kjaer, Lenglet, Escudero; N’Zonzi, Pizarro, Banega; Navas, Ben Yedder, Correa.