Boss: There's no such thing as 'favourites' in a semi-final

The Reds take on the Saints at St Mary’s on Wednesday night in the first leg of the last-four tie aiming to reach a third final under the tutelage of the manager.

Last February, Liverpool narrowly lost out in the League Cup finale to Manchester City on penalties before they were beaten 3-1 by Sevilla in the Europa League showpiece in May.

However, after that loss in Basel, Klopp told his players that it wouldn’t be the last final they would reach together – and should they progress against Southampton, they’d have ensured such words were correct at the first opportunity.

Nevertheless, Klopp believes the Reds cannot afford to buy into any suggestion they’re favourites to overcome Southampton.

He told his pre-match press conference: “It would be nice if we could go to the final. Are we favourites against Southampton? Whoever says this has not a real idea about cup competitions!

“If this was the case, then in the last few years the finals all over the world always would have been the same teams involved. I don’t think Sevilla-Liverpool last year was the expected final. Everybody expected Sevilla in the final but not us, but we were there and I think we deserved it.

“There is not more pressure on us [than Southampton], it’s an opportunity for both teams. I don’t think about missed chances or whatever; it’s always a new day, always a new chance, always a new final. 

“I said to the lads last year that it will not be the last final we will be involved in after Basel. This will be the first chance for us to prove this, so let’s try it.”

LFCTV GO: Klopp's pre-Southampton press conference

In order to reach the League Cup final last season, Liverpool recorded a 1-0 win over Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium in the first leg of the semis, before progressing to Wembley with a penalty shootout win in the return at Anfield.

Asked whether having home advantage in the second leg once again could be advantageous to the Reds, Klopp replied: “It depends on the result of the first game! It should, but we don’t have a lot of advantages in two-leg cup competitions.

“If you asked before [the draw], I would say that nearly everybody would say ‘let us play first away and then try to make the decision in the home game’. It’s not a decisive advantage if we don’t perform, that’s how it is.

“We can’t think about the second game in this moment because now we have to go to Southampton, it’s the first leg and I am pretty sure they’re pretty ambitious in this tournament.

“[The final] is a big thing, it’s a real and proper final at Wembley. We’ve had this experience once before and for us it felt always like we missed a little bit there.

“In this moment, probably a few people think it would be a nice final [if it was] Manchester United against Liverpool, but there are another two legs to go and hopefully at the end it’s not Hull against Southampton. Even then, it would be deserved. It’s difficult, but we are ambitious too and that’s what we showed all the time, so let’s try it again.”

Liverpool will journey to the south coast on the back of a goalless draw with Plymouth Argyle at Anfield on Sunday in the FA Cup.

The Reds made 10 changes for the clash with the League Two club, but Klopp has no regrets regarding his team selection.

“The question I asked this morning in the dressing room when we had a little analysis meeting was ‘could we have done better?’ 100 per cent, yes, and that’s with that line-up,” he said. “I have the highest expectations – I don’t expect perfection, but I have the highest expectations because I see them every day in training.

“I was pretty convinced that we can play really well. In a few parts it was good, a few performances of players were really good and then it became more and more difficult the longer the game was.

“I have absolutely no problem with criticism or something like that, but it is absolutely not because of underestimating an opponent or something, not one per cent. If somebody sees it like this, I cannot change it, so I won’t waste time to try to explain why we did it. It is how it is and it’s my job, I have to make decisions.

“I saw a lot of good things yesterday, but we missed – especially in the first half – the chance to make more pressure on them. We started too early in a kind of not-fluent-enough kind of possession game.

“But again, the biggest challenge in football life is playing against a good, organised and very deep defending side. This [Liverpool] team was not that tuned but could have done better. I have really seen worse things than what I saw yesterday in my life.”