The Liverpool head coach spoke to reporters at the AXA Training Centre ahead of his side's hosting of Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League.

See everything he had to say at the briefing…

There's an ongoing process and we have to respect that, so I can't go into details. So if you specify your question a bit more, maybe I can answer something – but not into the details.

I think what happened was that the extra time, the additional five minutes that ended up being eight, a lot happened and the emotions got the better of me. If I look back at it, I would love to do it differently. I'm hoping to do [it] differently next time as well. What exactly has been said or what has happened, I just told you there is an ongoing process and I don't want to disturb that.

It felt immediately after the referee blew his whistle that we lost two points. But during the whole 98 minutes, I didn't feel constantly that we were the ones that were going to win the game. It felt like an equal game and a draw would have maybe been a fair result. But with us leading after 97 minutes, we were close to winning the game, so it felt as if we dropped two points. But I think we won a lot [on] Wednesday as well and what I mean with that is if I look at the togetherness of the team, together with the fans, how much they fought together to get the result over the line.

We've been praised so many times this season about how well these players have played but they showed a different side of themselves [on] Wednesday, in my opinion, also much better than the year before. They were mentally so, so strong during a game that was played in maybe the most difficult circumstances for them as well. To stay strong together, to fight so hard, to be mentally so strong, that gives me a lot, a lot, a lot of confidence for the upcoming 14 games. I already knew how well they can play but the togetherness they showed during 98 minutes shows me that we are a very, very difficult team to beat.

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I think the players – I just said, so I can give the same answer again – they really stood up in a positive way, for me – mentally being so strong in those circumstances if you don't play your best game. Part of our game plan was, of course, to prevent them from playing so many balls into our box but it's difficult to prevent that if you concede 20 free-kicks. Then you just have to act [on] what is their strongest asset maybe, playing the balls in with all these centre-backs and full-backs coming up. And apart from the first goal we conceded from a free kick, I think we defended that really well. Players showed that they are more than 11 quality individuals that can play together in ball possession so well. They also showed they have great mentality again in, what I've experienced until now, the most difficult circumstances we played until now.

That's a bit of a similar answer I just gave. Of course we would've loved to go nine points up, that would've been probably better than seven – not probably, that would've been better than seven! But we take a lot of positives from the game as well, not football-wise [because] we didn't play our best game in terms of ball possession. But I have to give credit to David Moyes as well. Since he came in, he's done a tremendous job and he made it a really, really hard game for us. But the players stood up, in my opinion, because I did watch the game back last season, [which] I told you in the pre-match press conference. We were mentally much stronger than last season, we went 1-0 down and came back by leading the game until 97 minutes with 2-1.

I said the second half of the season is always more difficult than the first half for many reasons. Some teams bring new players in, some teams [have been] playing longer together so they're playing better together, some teams bring new managers in, like Everton and this manager at Everton is doing a great job and the one from Wolves has made them better as well, although I said back then that Gary O'Neil has been very unlucky because I think he deserved much more points than he got for several reasons. But the new manager that came in has done a very good job, got some positive results in. So, it's going to be a challenge again on Sunday but that is normal [in the] last part of the season in the best league of the world. You can't expect to go out there and have an easy win. It's always going to be a tough one but the players have shown all season they're ready for tough games.

It's not that we bring someone else in. I think it's the same with trying to implement the playing style. You also on a daily basis, maybe not every single day, but you also try to implement certain things mentality-wise, so you talk during training sessions or meetings also about these kind of things. A part of mentality is, of course, also just work as hard as you can and in the most difficult circumstances, so if things go against you or the other team is better than you at a certain moment, how do you react? You talk on a daily basis about that.

I've said already that I also two days before the game, or one day before the game, I showed them some clips from last season how the game was being played and how we reacted on certain situations. It's an ongoing process but also if you want to play at a top club like this, you need to have more than only quality. If you only have quality, you probably don't end up at Liverpool, so you need to have mentality as well. It's a combination that these players have this inside of them, otherwise you don't play for one of the biggest clubs in the world. It's something you try to address on a daily basis to create the right mentality.

He's a type of player that I'm referring to when I always say when I compare the leagues that I've worked in and this league. I don't know exactly where Wolves is at the moment – 17th? If you go to the Dutch league and you look at the number 17, there's no player that can play for Ajax, PSV or Feyenoord. But Matheus Cunha is a quality player and he has the quality to play for one of the top five teams in England. That is also one of the reasons why it is so much more difficult to win a game against the number 17 in England than to win against the number 17 in Holland. Again, we already saw when we played against them with Gary O'Neil they had a very good performance back then as well – he [Cunha] in particular. We know that it's going to be a tough game on Sunday again.

The good thing is we play so many games. I think he got a second yellow, if I am correct, so I assume it is the same in England as in Holland then it's only one game. He is out then for one game and then Wednesday is a game and then Sunday there is a game again. He comes back from an injury, so he missed already a few games. I was planning to start him against Plymouth but he wasn't completely recovered yet. I liked him a lot when he came in [against Everton]; a very good half-hour. I think it was the best part of our game after we made the substitutions.

It was the only part of the game where I felt a bit of comfort and a bit of, 'Maybe this feels like a bit of control…' I didn't think we controlled the game or whatever, but [it was] maybe the most we controlled the game. Maybe because of that we went 2-1 up and afterwards I felt maybe we could have defended that lead. We were good enough, we didn't concede a lot afterwards anymore. I think before we scored the 2-1, before we made the substitutions, then the game could have gone either way.

I just said many things in extra time happened that led to me being quite emotional. There was a VAR incident for two minutes where he checked. I thought maybe the only thing that could happen was he looked back at the foul and then all of sudden I was happy, 'Maybe it's offside?' Of course, then if after 10 minutes you hear their fans cheering, 'OK it wasn't offside.' Many things happened in extra time but, like I said, it wouldn't be smart to go into every single incident.

I like a lot that he stands up for the team – for the team and for the fans – but there are also other ways to do that, maybe. I will talk with him about that, but it is the same for me. I should've acted differently after the game as well. It's an emotional sport and sometimes individuals, out of emotion, make the wrong decision. That's definitely what I did.

I only said that part of our game plan was to prevent them from playing a lot of long balls. But it's difficult to prevent the goalkeeper from playing a long ball and it's difficult if they get a free-kick because it's not allowed to stay one metre in front of the ball, so they are able then to play the ball long – and I liked the way we defended that. I haven't said anything about the way it was officiated but it was clear that our midfielders and the whole team weren't able to bring our attackers in a lot of promising positions.

We scored two goals and maybe we created two-and-a-half chances, so it again shows you the quality of our finishing. I would have loved to have acted differently after the game, I would have loved us to play the game in a different way – but it's so hard to play the game in a different way if you face the circumstances we faced and the playing style we faced. So, that's why I was happy that we coped with their playing style in such a good manner.

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