Jurgen Klopp refused to point the finger at Adrian after Liverpool’s defence of their European crown ended in frustrating disappointment.
The Reds were beaten 3-2 at Anfield in the second leg to fall to a 4-2 aggregate loss against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League round of 16 on Wednesday.
Liverpool had gone ahead in the tie when Roberto Firmino added to Gini Wijnaldum’s first-half goal by scoring four minutes into extra time.
However, a mistake by Adrian allowed Atletico substitute Marcos Llorente to net a critical away goal three minutes later, with Llorente and Alvaro Morata netting in stoppage time at the end of both halves in extra time to inflict a first European knockout defeat for Liverpool under Klopp.
And of Adrian’s mistake, the Reds boss said: “He’s a man and he knows that’s how it is.
“We will not blame him for a second – what you (the media) do, I don’t know, but stay respectful, that would be really nice.
“He did not want to do that, he saved us in so many moments when he played.
“Since he’s here, he had super performances. This goal didn’t help tonight but that’s how it is. I said, if you lose a game you always lose for some (different) reasons.
“Tonight, this was not the moment that we lost the game, but it had a big impact."
Klopp added: “We should not say it was not like this because it was obvious but that’s it. We conceded more goals after this and we didn’t score the goals in other situations.
“We had plenty of reasons why we didn’t go through. How it is in life, especially when your job is in public, people judge you.
“But he’s a grown man and he will deal with that. We will help him with that but I don’t think he needs it, to be honest.”
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