Klopp Talk: “I Am Allowed to See Just the Good Bits of It”

With nothing left to play for heading into their final two games of the 2024-25 season, Liverpool’s performance against Aston Villa on Monday evening was something of a mixed bag that at times gave fans a glimpse of Jürgen Klopp’s final side at their best—and at others their worse.

For the manager, though, there’s no desire to focus on negatives as he prepares for the season closer against Wolves at Anfield. His team may have stumbled in April, but finishing third would have universally been considered a good result when the season started.

“For me, the story of the season is that the boys have really, really good character and a sensational attitude,” Klopp noted following his penultimate game in charge. “Nobody wants to hear it, but being this season the third-best team from where we came from is a statement as well.

“It’s improvement with a lot of changes and I like it. I am not over the moon about it but obviously for a week or two we’ve had to accept we cannot be the best or the second-best team in the league—that’s a good basis for the future and that’s all you can ask for.”

When it comes to keeping the focus on the good bits, it doesn’t hurt that Klopp isn’t as concerned today as he would’ve been in past years about what comes next for this group. Whatever changes might be being planned behind the scenes, they won’t be his concern come next Monday.

For a time, this was a side that overachieved to be in the title fight. Eventually, injuries and exhaustion caught up with them. The dream of significant silverware in Klopp’s final season may have been nice while it lasted, but on the whole it’s been a season of positives.

“I am allowed to see just the good bits of it,” he added. “If you carry on, you have to think about what didn’t go well because then you have to make changes, adjustments, whatever, but that’s obviously not me. We did what we could and if we could have done better, we probably would have.”