Jurgen Klopp has revealed how Liverpool have attempted to recover from their stunning 7-2 thrashing by Aston Villa in their previous Premier League fixture.
Just before the international break the Reds headed to Villa Park expected to easily defeat Dean Smith’s side, who came so close to relegation at the end of last season.
Klopp suffered the worst defeat of his managerial career last time out, as Aston Villa stunned the footballing world with their performance
Villa’s 7-2 thrashing of Liverpool will go down in history as one of the Premier League’s greatest ever shocks
But Villa instead ran riot, extending their perfect start to the campaign with the most unexpected of wins.
Well, calling it a ‘win’ does Villa a disservice, as they in fact routed Liverpool. Jack Grealish was the star man with three assists and two goals, but Ollie Watkins wasn’t bad either as he netted a first-half hat-trick.
Klopp has had a fortnight off to stew on the stunning result with Liverpool next in action on Saturday, when they visit Everton for the first Merseyside derby of the season – with full commentary of the 12:30pm kick-off LIVE on talkSPORT.
But what has the brilliant Reds coach done to ensure his players recover from being thrashed so resoundingly?
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Well, it turns out not that much actually, as Klopp wanted his players to forget about the result rather than carrying it through the international break like an albatross around their necks.
Speaking exclusively to talkSPORT Breakfast host Laura Woods, Klopp revealed: In some respect I like it morethan losing 3-2, because its just more clear.
We could have lost that night 3-2, and then we come home and the boys go to their national teams and we have to analyse and that is it pretty much. But this is more useful.
“For me it is very important that the boys dont carry it around, because pretty much all of them had three games to play [during the international break].
They are pretty intense games, important games for their countries, and you cannot do that when half of your brain is back at Liverpool.
So we wanted them to focus on that.
I wrote all the things I thought about the game and around the game so we could finish it for the moment, but the challenge now is that they played the last [international] game on Wednesday and arrive here very tired on Thursday, and we have to try to help their recovery.
Then we have one session on Friday and we play flying Everton.
That is it, that is the situation. We cannot change that and we dont want to change it. It is another game.
Saturday is GameDay on talkSPORT as we bring you three LIVE Premier League commentaries, including Everton vs Liverpool at 12:30pm