Friday morning saw Jurgen Klopp face the media for his pre-match press conference ahead of the Brentford game.
One of the first questions to the Liverpool manager was clearly one that he was ready for, as it revolved around the absences of Sadio Mane and Mo Salah.
Had the Reds scored and beaten Arsenal, then the fact that two of their best strikers were missing wouldn’t have been a problem.
However, they were missing, Liverpool failed to score, and so there wasn’t really any sort of wriggle room for Klopp to dress things up as positive other than to suggest that the situation is what it is and the club will just get on with it.
Sunday’s game is the 350th game that the German will be in charge of the Reds, and he was advised that he has the highest win percentage of any Liverpool manager in history.
When you consider that the likes of Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley and Kenny Dalglish have all trodden the same path before him, it’s a stat to be proud of.
In typical style, however, though Klopp was pleased to reach the total of games, he batted away the complimentary words on why he should feel proud. Clearly, the competitive edge still burns bright.
Liverpool struggled against 10 men during the first-leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final against Arsenal.
Klopp noted that, seemingly because of that, his team were trying just that bit too hard to get a goal.
That they weren’t calm enough and tried to force things rather than letting them occur naturally.