Jurgen Klopp believes Liverpool will be a Premier League contender next season, despite finishing the season with a thrilling 4-4 draw at relegated Southampton
The Reds entered St Mary’s knowing they had already missed out on a top-four finish for the first time since 2015-16.
Early goals from Diogo Jota and Roberto Firmino appeared to have put the in-form visitors on track for a comfortable victory on the south coast.
However, they were forced to come back from a 4-2 deficit to extend their unbeaten run to 11 games, thanks to Kamaldeen Sulemana’s brace and goals from James Ward-Prowse and Adam Armstrong.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, whose team avoided defeat thanks to goals from substitute Cody Gakpo and Jota, was relieved to see the end of 2022-23 and confident that the following season would be far more memorable.
“There were times during the season when you thought, ‘This season is going to last four years,'” he said.
“Thank God for the last 11 games; they gave us a real boost, a perspective, and a foundation for what we need to do.”
“We see that it wasn’t the best season ever, we know that, and we’re very disappointed that we didn’t make it to the top four.”
“But there are times when you have to admit that four teams were better than us – that’s the truth.”
“We had a bad season, we finished fifth, that’s also a message.”
“Imagine we were our normal selves, which we will be next season and will be a contender.” That is how it is. The last 11 games have helped us realize that once more.”
Gakpo and Jota scored in the 72nd and 73rd minutes, respectively, to save Liverpool from a shock defeat, while Mohamed Salah hit the crossbar late on.
During a “silly” period of a chaotic match, Klopp felt his players contributed to their own demise.
“We are 2-0 up, and you know these Southampton players want to pay back to these [home fans], and we let them, just opened the door for a really talented offensive team, with the speed they have,” he explained.
“I can make a list of things we weren’t doing that resulted in their counter-attacks.”
“At 2-2 and 4-2, we started doing the right things again.” I believe we could have added a fifth and a sixth goal.
“Outstanding start, outstanding finish, just silly in between.”
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