'Isn't a failure!' - Jeremie Frimpong taking inspiration from NBA superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo as Liverpool full-back insists no silverware wouldn't be a disaster

Reflecting on a season that has seen Liverpool exit all cup competitions and fall well behind Arsenal in the Premier League title race, Frimpong has turned to the world of basketball for perspective. The former Bayer Leverkusen man cited Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo as a source of inspiration during these testing times on Merseyside.

“Do you know Giannis? Do you watch NBA? You need to listen to him,” Frimpong said to The Telegraph. “You can’t win everything all the time. Sometimes you have to go through these situations to build again. I was watching Giannis. He got asked: ‘Was this season a fail for you?’ He was like: ‘No. This isn’t a fail. It’s the road to success.’ He started talking about Michael Jordan. When he didn’t win the finals, was it a fail for him and did it make his career devalued? No. It was the road to success. So no season should be seen as a fail, no matter the disappointment. This is a road we have to go down if we want success.”

Frimpong's debut season in England has been hampered by three separate hamstring injuries, making it difficult for the explosive right-back to find his rhythm under Arne Slot. Despite the personal and collective frustrations, the defender remains adamant that the standards within the Liverpool dressing room have not dropped.

He said: “Nobody likes to lose. You go into the dressing room here and you look around at what it’s like: everyone hates losing. But this is what I’m going back to, the point Giannis makes: no season is a fail. When you lose, the feeling is so bad, there’s no other way of saying it. But it’s steps. It’s never happened in my career. I’ve had three injuries and, on top of that, the team is not doing so well, like we should do. There have been a lot of challenges. If we could have won one of the FA Cup or the Champions League, it wouldn’t have been as bad.”

One of the biggest talking points at Anfield has been the form of Florian Wirtz, who followed Frimpong from Leverkusen. While some critics have questioned the investment, Frimpong is certain that his team-mate will eventually silence the doubters and replicate the form that saw them win the Bundesliga undefeated.

He added: “When I first heard Flo was coming, it was really nice. It’s not often two team-mates move to another team. I know where he can get space, I know when he wants it and how to get him to score. I can only say this, if it wasn’t for Flo we wouldn’t have won the Bundesliga or the Cup. I know what he can do. He knows what he can do. It’s just for you guys to wait and see. Look, he’s just so good on the ball, so comfortable. He hasn’t got my speed but he is fast because of how his mind works. I’ve seen it. I know it’s there.”

As the Merseyside derby looms, Frimpong is leaning on the advice given to him by captain Virgil van Dijk. Despite 17 losses across a tumultuous campaign, the right-back insists he has no regrets about his move to the Premier League and remains fully committed to the project at the club.

He said: “Van Dijk told me this was a great club; he told me to be ready because it was going to be different to anywhere else I had played. He told me this is a winning club, that we have to win things here. He warned me it would be hard because everyone would want to beat us, but he told me I would love it. I don’t want to be anywhere else other than Liverpool. Look, we’re going through a bad time now. I’ve had injuries, the team has had results that we didn’t want. But I wouldn’t change anything. Not a single thing. It’s all part of the journey.”