Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has admitted that he was glad to see his side's 44-match unbeaten Premier League run coming to an end last Saturday.
The Merseysiders suffered a shock 3-0 hammering at the hands of Watford which was their first defeat in the English top-flight since they went down 2-1 against last season's champions Manchester City in January 2019.
The German claims that he was unaware of how many games they had played without loss before the weekend but he also highlighted how close they came to be on an even longer run.
"I really had no idea how many games it was, now I know because everybody told me it's over now and that it was 44 games without losing a Premier League game," said Klopp.
"The Premier League game we lost before Watford was at Man City, it was because of eleven millimetres," referring to Sadio Mane's ricocheted shot that could have given the Reds the lead in the 2-1 loss to the champions last season.
"Imagine we didn't lose that game, it would have been a run of more than sixty games (66), which is absolutely incredible."
Close. *VERY* close.
Man City 0-0 Liverpool (30 mins)#MCILIV pic.twitter.com/5eF5HAhzn5— Premier League (@premierleague) January 3, 2019
Klopp admits that Liverpool have not been at their best in the most recent Premier League games against the Hornets, West Ham and Norwich as well as the Champions League defeat to Atletico Madrid.
However, he points to the fact that there was so much at stake for each of the four clubs that they faced in those games.
"We played four times in a row against teams who either fight [to stay in] the league with all they have," added Klopp.
"Or against Atletico, if you want, a team who is not in the best moment or was not in the best moment in the league and plays a home game in a really interesting approach, really defensive orientated, formation-wise.
"That's the most difficult thing in football, it's nothing to do [with] rhythm. Could we have done better? Of course.
"But it's not about now picking this game out, the Watford game, that was the sign that something went wrong. It's not like this. We have the chance to react and that's how it is."
Klopp believes that the end of the unbeaten run can help his players to refocus on the rest of the important games left to play this season.
"The longer you are in a situation like this, the biggest challenge these boys face constantly, everybody's fighting for everything and we fight with questions we get asked about, 'Is it over yet? When will you do it?' and stuff like that," said Klopp.
"So it's not that we are really bothered about it, that's just the situation. That's over now, that's good so we can concentrate again completely on football and we will do that.
"It didn't distract us or whatever, it's just a situation nobody can tell us how to deal in the best way with runs like this because not a lot of teams did it and that's all that I can say.
"I was not happy with the performance but it was always clear that there would be a moment when it could happen and now it happened so that's how it is and nothing else."
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