Jurgen Klopp insists his respect for domestic cup competitions has not changed as Liverpool target another Wembley outing.
Victory in Sunday’s FA Cup quarter final at Nottingham Forest will see Klopp’s side book their place for a last-four outing at England’s national stadium.
The Anfield club have already lay claim to the Carabao Cup, which could become the first trophy of an unprecedented quadruple later this season.
But Klopp has rejected suggestions that the Reds are only now embracing cup competitions, pointing to their previous exits as reasons for a lack of progress.
He said: “My attitude didn’t change, not at all.
“If you look at my German history, most of the finals I’ve lost, it’s still a big number, is the German Cup final.
“Obviously when you have the players available for both competitions, or three competitions in this case, then it’s okay. You can do it.
“If not, you have to make changes where people think ‘why is he doing that?’ because we come back to the point, with all my knowledge, I ask the players for an awful lot until a specific point and then take them out.
“Because even if they want, they should not be in the situation that they have to deliver again. That’s it. That’s why we had changes.
“We’ve said it before. It’s not that I’m putting it out that we were always unlucky but we had not the best draw as well. It’s not that we thought ‘That’s cool – let’s go to Chelsea away, play at United away’, and stuff like this.
“It’s now not exactly what you want to have. So my attitude didn’t change. I always wanted to go to Wembley. It just didn’t happen [in the past].”
Liverpool could hand Conor Bradley a rare start at the City Ground as Trent Alexander-Arnold faces ‘weeks’ out after suffering a hamstring injury.
Bradley has not featured since January’s third round win over Shrewsbury and was an unused substitute for the visit of Norwich City in the previous round.
But Klopp spoke of his admiration for the Northern Ireland international ahead of a potential inclusion against Steve Cooper’s high-flying Championship outfit.
“Conor is a top boy,” added the Liverpool manager.
“Because we have a full squad, he was not with us all the time.
“There was a spell where he was pretty much in all sessions with us but not now in the last few weeks so I cannot say exactly how he developed in the last few weeks because he was not here.
“But from the things I know and what I saw, [he is] a wonderful talented boy with a big heart. A real fighter and it’s a joy to have him around.”