Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp declared himself "not happy, but fine" after seeing his team drop two points in Saturday's 0-0 draw against Southampton, explaining that he was pleased with the performance even if the Reds squandered chances to win the game.
Liverpool were largely restricted in what they could do by a solid Southampton defensive effort, but goalkeeper Fraser Forster made one particularly good save to deny Sadio Mane in the first half, while the likes of Philippe Coutinho, Roberto Firmino,Nathaniel Clyne and Emre Can all later missed the target with decent chances.
Jürgen Klopp remains positive after today's draw... #SOULIV pic.twitter.com/NYp7ydlp3e
"I'm fine with the performance, absolutely. We could have scored and maybe we should have scored, but that's how football is," Klopp said as he faced the media after the final whistle.
For Liverpool it was only a second Premier League clean sheet of the season, and so the fact that the team managed to keep it tight at the back and not leak a goal when they were unable to score themselves was equally crucial.
"Very often in my life, I have lost games like this, when we were so much better and had many more chances (than the opposition). We didn't because we stayed concentrated and that's very important, maybe the most important thing for us," Klopp explained.
"Everybody could see already this season that on a very good day, we are able to score fantastic goals. But today it was much more difficult because of different reasons. Even then, to stay in the game is the best news we can get. I'm not 'happy', but I'm fine," he added.
"The result is not perfect but the performance was actually much better than we could have expected when we think about our preparation for the game, when Phil (Coutinho) and Roberto (Firmino) came back (from international duty).
"For all teams it's nearly the same but with players from South America it's a little bit more difficult, because they have long flights. So, I'm absolutely okay."
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