Jurgen Klopp lauds Liverpool for 'big, big' third-place finish after season of problems

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp believes their third-place Premier League finish is a big achivement considering the circumstances of the 2020-21 season. The defending champions were plagued with injuries to key players throughout the campaign. At one point, a finish in the top 4 even seemed unlikely. Yet they rebounded and finished the season strongly, albeit without any major trophies.

“It’s big, it’s big. If someone would have told me weeks ago that we can finish the season in third, that was absolutely out of reach and felt impossible,” Klopp said after the match.

“Even the good things when they happened this year didn’t feel too good very often because too many things around happened. The injuries was a subject that followed us through the whole year and that was really tough to take.

“For the whole team, fighting through this and finishing third is the best lesson you can learn for life. I couldn’t be more happy that I was around when that happened again.

“From nowhere to the Champions League in five weeks is a massive achievement as I see it and I think that’s right.”

Klopp added his team learnt a lot from the ‘harder moments’ of the season.

“From outside you cannot really understand because we are just Liverpool. We have to perform, we have to win, we have to become champion or whatever.

“It was not possible for us this year so you have to fight through and in the harder moments you can learn the most. In the harder moments you can show the most and we really stuck together all the time.”

Jurgen Klopp thanks Liverpool fans

The German manager also thanked the 10,000 Liverpool fans in attendance for making a raucous atmosphere. He added that the side had missed fans being present for games.

“I cannot sum it (season’s emotions) up, too much happened to be honest. But to have the opportunity to do this, to have this last game in front of 10,000 people means really the world to us.”

“Everything is better when the people are in the stadium and we are better when the people are in the stadium. That’s how it is.

“We can fight more when people are in the stadium because they support us, they give us a boost, they help us.”