Jürgen Klopp on finishing third, Gini Wijnaldum and LFC's season

Goals in each half from Sadio Mane secured victory in front of 10,000 fans at Anfield as the Reds rounded off the campaign by extending their unbeaten streak in the top flight to 10 matches.

The three points, coupled with Chelsea’s 2-1 loss at Aston Villa, meant Klopp’s team leapfrogged Thomas Tuchel’s side in the final standings. 

Read on for a transcript of the boss’ post-match press conference...

On how big an achievement he views Liverpool’s third-placed finish given the problems faced throughout the season…

It’s big, it’s big. If someone would have told me weeks ago – five, six, eight, 10 weeks ago – that we can finish the season in third, that was absolutely out of reach and felt impossible. Even the good things when they happened this year didn’t feel too good very often because too many things around happened. The injuries was a subject that followed us through the whole year and that was really tough to take. Just as an example, we win 3-0 at Burnley, happy camp, everything fine, we go home and Rhys Williams needs to have a scan because he has a hamstring [injury]. He didn’t train for three days, but could play today and that was the lucky moment but nobody knew that until a few hours before the game. Today they [Williams and Nat Phillips] both get a cut, we had to fight through and the boys did that. Let’s talk about them: how they played is absolutely incredible. The steps they made this year, they should be really very proud of because it is absolutely a different level now, that’s really nice to be part of that. For the whole team, fighting through this and finishing third is the best lesson you can learn for life. I couldn’t be more happy that I was around when that happened again. From nowhere to the Champions League in five weeks is a massive achievement as I see it and I think that’s right.

On Wijnaldum…

Where can I start? I met this wonderful player for the first time – we played, obviously, against him, and the first time I met him was in my living room at home because I had see to him and talk to him. From the first moment it clicked between us. He is a very friendly, very smart, very open person, and that never changed, that just improved. Yes, it is very emotional for me because I lose a friend and I will miss him, that’s how it is. But it’s normal in football that these kind of things happen – it’s not always nice, but normal, and I am really sure he will find a great place. Each club who is interested in him should call me and ask about him. Then you will take him, definitely, because I could not be more positive about what he did here. It’s incredible. He was not only always available, he played 90 per cent of the time really, really good. People might not know exactly what I mean with ‘good’ because sometimes it’s not that spectacular. Sometimes it’s that, but from a young kid he was an offensive No.10, to a winger at Newcastle, to coming here and becoming such a controlling midfielder. That’s a massive step and you only can do that when you understood the game, really, in the right way. He scored incredibly important goals: Barcelona, Cardiff I think was very, very important, Middlesbrough was very important. So many top, top-class performances. Now, it looks like the time is over but everything will be fine and nobody can take our memories from us. We will share them forever and that’s really great. I told him that after the game, he sees it the same way and the goodbye would not be tough if the time you had together was not worth it. So, it’s really tough because we had a great time together.

On where the achievement of finishing third this season ranks among his feats at Liverpool…

It ranks in the third position! Who cares?! It’s great, it’s absolutely great, it’s outstanding. From outside you cannot really understand because we are just Liverpool: we have to perform, we have to win, we have to become champion or whatever. It was not possible for us this year so you have to fight through and in the harder moments you can learn the most, in the harder moments you can show the most and we really stuck together all the time. There was no argument or whatever about different things, we just knew some things are tough [and] we have to improve. That’s true, we have to, but football is a game based on confidence and we had not a lot of opportunities to gain confidence. We were constantly sorting problems and that’s so nice to see that we could use the last five, six, seven weeks to give this season a proper turnaround. I’m really happy for the Champions League that they don’t have to play without us! So, we are in it, that will be great, can’t wait for that. Outstanding achievement from the boys. Man City has, rightly so, won the league, a great season and congratulations again. But because we cannot be champion that does not mean we have no targets and the target was then, from a specific point, European football. And that’s now Champions League, that’s really good.

On how he would sum up the emotions of the season... 

I cannot sum it up, too much happened, to be honest. But to have the opportunity to do this, to have this last game in front of 10,000 people means really the world to us. And I have to say, I don’t want to blame the other 45,000 who are usually here but the 10,000 did a really good job today. When we came out it felt like, ‘Oh, it’s sold out!’ That was absolutely incredible, it was so nice to have this experience again together. Everything is better when the people are in the stadium and we are better when the people are in the stadium, that’s how it is. We can fight more when people are in the stadium because they support us, they give us a boost, they help us. That we did it without them makes the achievement even bigger, to be honest, but I don’t want to try it a second time, if I am 100 per cent honest!