Klopp on Moreno selection, City reaction and Wolves tie

The Spaniard is set to be named in the Reds’ defence at Molineux to make his fifth appearance of the season so far, with Simon Mignolet also in line to begin the clash.

Klopp revealed the decision during a pre-match briefing with journalists at Melwood, during which he discussed how he’s dealt with his side suffering a first Premier League defeat of the campaign at Manchester City on Thursday night and the importance of the FA Cup.

Read on for a summary of what the boss had to say…

On how he’s handled the players following Liverpool’s defeat at Manchester City…

After games, I think I am just realistic. I say what I have to say. The boys are too smart, so if I come in and say, ‘Everything is brilliant! Come on, it was a fantastic game, who cares about the points?’ it would be really silly and wouldn’t work. My assessment of the game was positive, of course – not about the result, but about the game. Was it perfect? No, so we have to talk about that. Could we have defended the second goal? Yes, with the last line higher up and stuff like that. There are things you can talk about, but can I expect always perfection? I would love to but sometimes it doesn’t work out. It is completely normal, I don’t have to make a big fuss of it if there is no real issue.

If we’d played really bad and lost 5-0 that would have for sure been different. This was the smallest difference result-wise you can get – you cannot lose with less than one goal. We lost with one goal, that can happen. We hit the post, they had to block two or three balls pretty much on their line, they were lucky in one or two situations, that’s how it is – and that was against Man City. It was not only positive, for sure not, but it was not only negative. We take it like it is and in a few moments, learn from it. There were moments where we can learn, 100 per cent – we could have calmed down the game a bit earlier, we could have started differently, that’s all clear but it’s just one football game.

The boys played – especially in the last month – outstanding football, so if I go in now after a game we lost and lose the plot completely, that would not be too cool. I am pretty similar after games; I don’t celebrate in the dressing room usually and it is really rare I shout around after games. Usually I take a day or a night at least to think about the things I saw and then I speak to the team. Sometimes I do it directly after the game – and at City I did it directly after the game. I was rather neutral rather than one or the other direction.

On whether Alberto Moreno will play at Wolves…

100 per cent, 100 per cent. Alberto is another example for being an unbelievable professional person and a really important part of the dressing room. He is from the positive side of the planet I would say. He is very often in very, very good shape, he loves training, loves playing and loves all these things and he is really good with all the boys. I can say Alberto will play as well, there is no doubt about that. He has to play, that’s clear.

On taking a break from league action after a first defeat of the campaign…

I don’t think about things I can’t change too much. I don’t know, it’s OK, it’s like it is, we’ve known it for a while, so it’s not that I feel we have to react immediately in the league because that would feel a little bit like we are insecure about ourselves. We don’t know exactly how it will happen. When the draw came up and we saw Wolves it was like, ‘wow, thank you very much’ and it’s away. Then we played there and it was really difficult. Now we have to go there again and so it’s a really tough draw and nobody was looking forward to it and saying at the moment of the draw, ‘nice game, let’s go there and win’. We have Brighton to come after and it is always a tough place to go, they’ve had a fantastic season. Do I want to play Brighton directly after Man City? I don’t know, I didn’t think about it. We have now between the Premier League games nine days or so, and in between is a very, very tough FA Cup game. I didn’t think about it, it’s OK like it is.

On the importance of the FA Cup…

How can we speak in the first round of the FA Cup about winning it? It is clear in the end the quarters and the semi-finals of the FA Cup are always unbelievably difficult, they are like Champions League games. It’s a very important competition, but we have to make sure we can play with the right intensity. For this you need – if you can do it – to make changes. To be honest, I don’t think Wolves will make changes, they have a very tuned team and I think [Nuno Espirito Santo] said already there is enough times between the games. We have to make a couple [of changes], so we will see. We want to win everything, but you cannot win it in the first game – you have to make sure you are as good as possible in that game, make the right decisions about the line-up – maybe tough decisions, maybe not that tough – and then we will see.

Again, it is always when people talk to me about silverware it always looks like we have to get each little thing. If we won the FA Cup then people would say that we didn’t win the Premier League for so many years. We cannot change what other people think. We have to try our best in every game we play and so far, not only this season but especially this season, that’s what the boys did – and that’s what we will try again and again and again and we will see what happens. I would say we had the toughest draw together with Chelsea in the first round of the League Cup. I don’t know all the others, but [other than] Bournemouth versus Brighton there is not a lot of all-Premier League ties. We have to think about the whole situation, not being like children and jumping always from one problem to the next problem – we have to consider all and that’s what we will do.