Arne Slot prefers losing to winning.
At least in terms of performances – as the Liverpool boss insists the display in their loss against Manchester United was better than that in the win over Aston Villa, despite the outside noise being completely different.
Slot is always candid about tactics and performance levels, with the Dutchman often thinking results dictate too much of the post-match chatter.
He said: 'I liked our performance more against United than Villa, I think I am the only one. The result I liked was against Villa!
'What I mean from that, is from open play we created much more chances against United than Villa. We had to take more risks but we didn't concede a lot (of chances) against United.
'We were "lucky" against Villa that one of the best keepers in the world made a mistake and we had a deflection to score.
'If you win a game everything is "wow, what a game, look at this!" if you lose everything is focused on what you need to improve. I try to balance that out a bit in this building.'
Slot will go to Manchester City on Sunday hoping to have Alexander Isak in the travelling party. The Swede is set to train on Friday afternoon and could make the squad – though Alisson and Jeremie Frimpong remain out.
The boss also hailed Dominik Szoboszlai, who has been a standout performer, and said: 'He has been outstanding throughout the whole season.
'These two games brought more out of him. It is maybe smarter not to say those things. I think Dominik has a lot of qualities but one of them is also his work without the ball.
'I like it every single game but in the last two that was above his own standards.'