Jurgen Klopp is adamant Liverpool’s pre-season preparations “must be different” to last year as their summer plans begin to take shape.
The Reds had a condensed preparation period at the beginning of this campaign, due to a late finish to the previous term by reaching the Champions League final and an early start to the next because of the mid-season World Cup.
The lack of the regular training programme meant Liverpool weren’t properly ready for the campaign with a number of players picking up serious injuries as a consequence, setting the tone for an underwhelming season in which they are now unlikely to finish inside the top four.
With no major international tournament this year, elite players will be given a first extended break since the lockdown due to coronavirus in 2020.
Liverpool have yet to officially confirm their full plans for pre-season, but will spend at least a week at a training camp in Germany before embarking on another overseas tour, which is likely to see them return to Singapore for the second time in 12 months.
And Klopp, whose side travel to West Ham United in the Premier League on Wednesday evening, is adamant there will not be a repeat of last season’s less than ideal preparation.
Jurgen Klopp said: “It’s completely normal, you cannot compare it. Last season we went to all the finals and played until the last day. But I cannot tell the boys then ‘two weeks and I’ll see you again for training’ – that’s just not possible. So you have to squeeze each minute out. But then we planned the pre-season at that time, who could know… yes, we can always think we’re going to be in the Champions League final, but we have to plan it early and usually you have to plan without the Champions League final because that doesn’t happen constantly, you just have to deal with it. And that is what we did, we dealt with it. But then we started in Thailand and pretty much playing immediately because we had to and then the boys came back step by step by step and then it was never a perfect pre-season but that is not the reason for our season now because before that we had similar pre-seasons. But this year must be different. So we have now already three, four five weeks – I don’t know how long – without international football. Usually you play all the time. Now we play a lot – I actually have no clue where they would have put in the Champions League games (if Liverpool had progressed to the semi-finals this season). But it’s different and that’s why we have to step up. We have to step up. And we have to prepare that in the pre-season and that’s why I want them back together as quick as somehow possible, respecting the necessity of holidays. I know that and I respect that and I want them to go on holiday for as long as possible but for this year we have to make sure we are together as soon as possible and can go from there.”
Liverpool’s season will end with the Premier League trip to Southampton on Sunday, May 28, with internationals taking place between June 12 and 20. Those players not involved with their countries will report back at the AXA Training Centre on Saturday, July 8 with everyone else returning before the end of the week. And of the minimum period of rest for his players,
Jurgen Klopp said: “Yeah, three weeks at least are possible. After that we want to start together. That might not exactly be possible, I think the international players get three days more. We start back on the 8th and for the other boys it will be the 11th. Before the internationals they all have a few days off then they go to camps before they play. But, to be honest, the players have to negotiate that with their nations – whether they go to a full camp or half a camp or whatever. We have to do that constantly to juggle around and now they just say the day after the season ends they go on a camp to prepare you for whatever is coming up, it’s crazy but our hands are tied we cannot say anything about that. So that is why the next season stands above everything, to be honest. It means the next season starts with the pre-season and the boys on international duties will have at least three weeks plus the three days more – plus two, three, four days before (the internationals) so they can get up to four weeks off. But then we start here, we will have three or four days here for the testing and all these kind of things – even the boys who come slightly late – and then we go on a training camp to Germany and we can work there properly with the whole squad and that is exactly what we need.”
