Jurgen Klopp hit back at suggestions a 10-day break between games cost Liverpool crucial sharpness in the final third as they were held to a 0-0 draw by Bayern Munich.
The Reds boss acknowledged that his side were let down by their final pass on a number of occasions after they failed to carve out an advantage in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie.
However, he bristled at suggestions that this sloppiness owed anything to a lack of match action since a 3-0 win over Bournemouth at Anfield on February.
Asked if his team’s recent hiatus may have been a factor, Klopp said: “The 10-day break, what is the final pass to do with that?
“You have to look at the game and think about the game, don’t prepare a question only because we have a 10-day break.
“I have no clue why we didn’t play the last pass. Sharpness has nothing do with the last pass, it is about being in the moment, doing the right step.
“You saw the situations, they were nothing to do with the 10 days. And even if [it did] we had the 10 days’ break, we cannot change it.
“Now we will not have any break anymore so now we play through and if it was a problem tonight then we will not have that problem anymore because now we play every three days.”
Although they won’t take an aggregate lead to Munich next month, Liverpool at least prevented their opponents from notching a valuable away goal at Anfield.
And Klopp believes that will serve to improve perceptions of an initially disappointing 0-0 draw as the second leg nears.
“How it is in situations like this, I am pretty sure that Bayern in this moment feels a bit better than we do,” he added.
“But we have three weeks and day by day the result will feel a bit better for us and a bit worse for Bayern because it’s a 0-0 and it’s the best draw you can get.
“It will be a tough one again to play at Bayern if you need a result. If we win tonight 1-0, what would have changed really?
“Then, a 0-0 over there would have been enough - or if we draw 1-1 but that’s now enough as well. So not perfect but good enough.
“What we wanted tonight was to get a result we can work with and we can work with that result, obviously.
“We still feel like we are proper in the competition but we have to show that in three weeks.”
The German boss appeared to be remonstrating with opposite number Niko Kovac at full-time, but cleared up the misunderstanding in his post-match press conference.
He continued: “No, no, no. I said already to German television stations: I wanted to shake Niko’s hand immediately and then he went in the crowd of his players and I thought he shook the whole of Bayern’s hands.
“Then when he came back I said I am waiting and he apologised and I said no problem and he wants to apologise again. That’s how it was.”
