Jurgen Klopp expects Liverpool’s Champions League defeat to Atletico Madrid to spark a reaction when they face West Ham in the Premier League on Monday night.
Tuesday’s 1-0 loss at the Estadio Metropolitano was only Liverpool’s third defeat of a remarkable season, including the Carabao Cup exit to Aston Villa in which the Under-23s played.
Although they will need to wait until the reverse leg at Anfield on March 11 to exact revenge against Atletico, they can take their frustrations out on David Moyes’ relegation-battling Hammers.
“We lost the game, there’s absolutely no positive in it, but if there’s any help in that result it’s that you felt a defeat,” he said. “Nobody thought: ‘Oh, in the league we’re fine’.
Good vibes at Melwood 😁🔴 pic.twitter.com/f7GOxGbXmS— Liverpool FC (@LFC) February 21, 2020
“We have to put it right to get the other feeling back. I don’t think we ever lost how a win feels, but now we lost the difference is massive. It’s much more than three points. It’s really from sunshine to hardest rain.
“That’s how it should be if you want to be successful, how we could have been in that game. Then it has to feel really bad and that’s how it felt. So yes, we want to put it right even though it will be a different competition.”
Liverpool will be without club captain Jordan Henderson for Monday’s game, with Klopp revealing he expects the midfielder to be sidelined for around three weeks after suffering a hamstring injury 10 minutes from time in Madrid.
“It could have been worse,” Klopp said. “We all know it was a hamstring thing and we have heard of different hamstring injuries in the Premier League – Harry Kane and stuff like that.
“It’s not that bad but he will be out for three weeks or so which is not cool, but how we see it we were still lucky.”
James Milner replaced Henderson, and Klopp said he was happy with the options he has in midfield.
“Hendo is exceptionally important, not only football-wise, but for other reasons as well, but we still have options there and that’s good, and there’s a chance for all of them.
“There would have been a chance anyway as Hendo wouldn’t have played every game but it’s a position where we can react so we will react.”
Klopp has also made news this week for writing a letter to a young Manchester United fan who had asked him if Liverpool could lose a few games so that they did not win the league.
With his side 22 points clear of Manchester City it would take more than a few, but Klopp said he appreciated the “cheek” of 10-year-old Daragh Curley, from County Donegal, and chose to write back.
“I cannot answer all the letters I get, I get a lot, but it was just nice,” Klopp said. “It was cheeky, we had time that day so I read the letter and I replied.
“It’s a private thing, I get a letter, I respond and the next day it’s in a newspaper – I don’t like that too much but it’s all fine.
“I like working for Liverpool and I like the rivalry we have, but I love even more if we can keep that on the pitch.
“But apart from that they can be happy and we should be happy and I hope Daragh is now happy – he looked like it on the picture I saw later, so good.
“Ten years old is a nice age when you should start being cheeky and it was smart as well.”
