Jurgen Klopp admits what every Liverpool fan will expect to hear after heavy Man Utd defeat

Jurgen Klopp stressed that boosting fitness levels over the result was the most important thing as Liverpool suffered a heavy pre-season loss to Manchester United.

The Reds opened their pre-season friendly campaign with a 4-0 loss to their bitter Premier League rivals in Thailand.

Klopp used 32 players against United - with many members of the squad only returning to duty last Friday. A host of teenagers also featured as every outfield player was given a 30-minute cameo.

And while the Anfield chief hates losing, using the game at Bangkok’s Rajamangala Stadium for an important workout was the key.

What’s been said

Speaking to the club website, Klopp said: “Obviously the game came a little bit too early for us, for some of our boys, so I think we agree that we saw a lot of good things in this game, but in the decisive moments we were not clear enough with finishing our situations off.

“We gave massive chances away, pretty much. Pretty much no-brainers, but United did well in these moments, they finished the situations off. We admit that, but that’s it pretty much.

“The most important thing now after the game, even when I hate losing, everybody has 30 minutes in their legs now, for some on the third day of training [that’s] really harsh but that’s the life of a professional football player. So now we can work with that and will work with that.

“As I said, we could have scored the equaliser in the last four minutes! But that’s how it is. I know, football is a results game and we do it all for that, but we have to prepare for a full season.

“We had no chance to prepare for this game, really, so we had to do it like we did it with three teams, three times 30 minutes and we are now eight days in training with a big group and with all internationals it is three days.

“That’s it and from here we go, so of course I would have loved to have shown the people here a few goals. The chances were there, we didn’t use them, and that’s it.”