Jürgen Klopp met with the media one final time in the 2022-23 season. During the press conference, the boss discussed the 4-4 draw with Southampton, the pending offseason and the number of Premier League goals Liverpool over the course of the season
Klopp liked how his team started and finished the day, but was not pleased that they let Southampton score 4 unanswered goals to go up 4-2
“Top start, great finish in between it was a mess,” he said. “ Southampton really is a good club. Getting relegated is the worst thing possible, but the atmosphere was pretty special. You know Southampton want to pay these people back and we let them. We opened the door to a really good offensive team. You can make a list of things we did not do in the middle of the game. We are down 4-2 and then we started doing the things we wanted to do again.”
Klopp admits that this season has been a long one, but the club's current 11-match unbeaten streak has given them a blueprint for continued success.
“There were moments in the season where you thought the season would be four years long,” Klopp said. “I am not sure how long we didn't lose for... 11 games, so that helped massively, gave us a real boost, gave us perspective and gave us a basis for what we have to do. That it didn't turn into the best ever season, we see that, we know that, we are very disappointed about the fact we didn't make it into the top four, but there are moments when you have to admit there are four teams that were better than us. That's the truth.”
No Liverpool team has given up this many Premier League goals (47) in a single season under Klopp. His explanation is pretty simple: Poor defending.
“The big scorelines are when the teams are not good [at] defending,” he said. “I think that was the reason today. Both teams were not really good in defending. Both teams could have scored more goals. In general I think we all want to see that, as a neutral I want to see it as well, to be honest. Today I would've loved to see a few less, but that's absolutely OK. It's the quality. If you don't defend on top of your game then you will get smashed in this league.”
Klopp's last press conference of the season was not that different from his first. He was very complimentary of the opposition while simultaneously praising and critiquing Liverpool's performance appropriately There will be some new faces on the pitch for the Reds next season, but I don't expect Klopp's formula for press conferences to change at all.
