Outgoing Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp.
Credit: Reuters Photo
Outgoing manager Juergen Klopp's nine-year spell at Liverpool may have included some big near-misses, but the German manager said he has no regrets for the ones that got away.
Under Klopp, Liverpool lost the Premier League by a single point in 2018-19 - but they roared back to win it the following season.
They also lost the Champions League final in 2017-18 only to clinch that title the next year.
The initial setbacks did nothing to weaken his resolve, Klopp told The Times.
"If my career didn’t teach me how to deal with setbacks, then there is no career for that," Klopp told the paper ahead of his last game as Liverpool manager on Sunday, at home against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
"Millimetres, inches decided things for us. I know for people it makes a massive difference if I won more. If I win three, I am definitely a successful manager. If I win one in nine years, people can argue it. But I couldn’t care less.
"From time to time you get it and from time to time they get it. I’m at peace with it."
Klopp said he felt responsible for the process of change Liverpool would have to go through following his departure but added that he knew this was unavoidable.
"There’s a lot of uncertainty for the people, and I didn’t want that for them. But I knew if I did it in another year or another two years, it would be exactly the same for these people," he said.
"That cannot be the reason for not doing it. I had to overcome that. I had to think of myself first, which doesn’t happen a lot, actually."
During his tenure Liverpool also won a Club World Cup title, an FA Cup and two League Cups, and the 56-year-old said that overall he was happy with the memories he has made at Liverpool.
"Could it have been more successful? Yes. With me? I don’t know. We did absolutely everything. I am very self-critical but I do not reflect on this in a critical way. I am super happy with my time here... I look back with a smile," he said.