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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Paul Gorst

Jurgen Klopp rejects Liverpool critics after 'really difficult' admission

Jurgen Klopp has dismissed claims he has taken the cup competitions more seriously than usual at Liverpool this season.

The Reds beat Chelsea on penalties last month to clinch the Carabao Cup at Wembley and will have another trip to the national stadium lined up if they find a way past Nottingham Forest in Sunday's FA Cup quarter-final.

Since Klopp has been at Anfield, his 36 cup ties across both the FA Cup and League Cup have paired the Reds with 23 other teams from the top flight, with the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea and Leicester all responsible for knocking Liverpool out in recent years.

West Brom, Wolves and Arsenal have also eliminated Klopp 's men since 2019, but after winning a record ninth League Cup last month for Liverpool, the manager has now set his sights on the FA Cup as the Reds continue to do battle for the Premier League and Champions League too.

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Klopp rejected the opinion that he has never truly treated the domestic cups with respect and said it is merely the luck of draw that has denied them going further in both more often since his arrival in October 2015.

"Usually people question my tactical ability and stuff like this but never my attitude," Klopp said. "My attitude didn't change, not at all. If you look at my German history, most of the finals I lost - it's still a big number - were the German Cup final.

"Obviously when you have the players available then it's okay and you can do it, if not, you have to make changes where people say, 'Why is he doing that?' But we come to the point where, with all my knowledge, I ask the players for an awful lot until a specific point and then take them out.

"It's now, [even] if they want, they should not be in the situation where they have to deliver again. That's why we had changes. We said it before that we were not always unlucky but we had not the best draw as well. It's not that we thought: 'Let's go to Chelsea away or United away' - or Chelsea at home in a situation where we didn't have players.

"So no, the attitude didn't change, I always wanted to go to Wembley, it just didn't happen."

He added: "For the league games you can make changes and then for the FA Cup the players are available. You need a specific amount of senior players available that you can bring in the young ones but if you have to play only with young ones then it's really tricky.

"We had to do that from time to time but it is then really difficult. The mix makes a difference actually."

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