Klopp: Brief change of scenery in Barcelona was good for us
Jürgen Klopp has used his notes in the official matchday programme to explain the reasoning behind Liverpool’s trip to Barcelona earlier this week.
Writing in ‘This is Anfield’ ahead of today’s game against West Ham United, the boss outlined why he felt the squad would benefit from a change of scenery in their training schedule.
Klopp said: “What can I say about the Bournemouth result other than for us it will serve as a lesson and we will take the information from it and develop as a team. There were so many positives from the performance and I cannot fault the players’ attitude or character. They gave us everything on the pitch, but in the end we didn’t get the job done and, of course, that is frustrating.
“But when you can learn from experiences such as this, long-term we can take the benefits from them. We are still a team in development. We are still learning together. We are by no means ‘finished’. It would not be smart or clever if we were by this stage. Of course we did not want this lesson or experience, but we had it and now we must use it.
“After the game the team and staff flew to Barcelona for a training break. I’m not sure what you would call this; I have seen ‘team bonding’ and other phrases used like ‘warm weather training’. I suppose these descriptions are fair. What we did was take the players away so they could have some time in a different environment. They enjoyed an evening together, but the rest of the time was training and being a ‘team’ away from Melwood. Of course Melwood is our headquarters of football but a change of environment and scenery is also a good thing.
“Since the summer these players have given everything for us and worked extremely hard; they know we are still early in the season and early in our story and the hard work is very much in the early stages still. But I like to see them together where they can enjoy each other’s company and come even closer as a group. The training was excellent and although ‘warm weather’ might be over-stating the temperatures it was certainly a few degrees higher than England and Merseyside.
“That is absolutely clear is that our focus today will be back on West Ham United and our only thoughts are on trying to win this game.”
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