Jürgen: Returning England five will be ready to go again
Jürgen Klopp is certain there will be no Euro 2016 hangover for Liverpool's England players when they join up for pre-season training this week.
Nathaniel Clyne, Jordan Henderson, Adam Lallana, James Milner and Daniel Sturridge were at the tournament with the Three Lions, who were eliminated by Iceland in the last 16.
The five Reds have been on a break since that disappointment in France but will resume club duties as the tour of America begins with arrival in California on Thursday.
Klopp expects the group to be ready to ‘go again’ and underline the strength of competition within the squad for the upcoming season.
“They have [had a good break] of three weeks,” the manager told Liverpoolfc.com.
“No players came back with the Europa League final in their minds, so it’s a memory if you want. It’s an experience but as a human being you can suffer, that’s no problem, and we all suffered actually.
“But you then have to actually say, ‘okay, that’s it and let’s go again'. I’m pretty sure they will do this.
“Adam Lallana, especially, played really well in the European Championship. That was really good. Daniel Sturridge had a fantastic moment [against Wales], Nathaniel played really well in his game and Hendo was really good in his game [against Slovakia].
“OK, Milly was not too satisfied with his role but that’s how it is sometimes. He made no mistake in the tournament, so he can be confident and that’s how it is.
“But now international time is over and Liverpool time starts again.”
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Liverpool have started their pre-season programme with three consecutive victories, beating Tranmere Rovers, Fleetwood Town and Wigan Athletic without conceding a goal so far.
They play Huddersfield Town tonight and then immediately fly to the United States, where tough tests await in the form of fixtures against Chelsea, AC Milan and AS Roma.
With less than a month until the Premier League season gets underway, Klopp wants to ensure the level of every player means nobody can guess his chosen XI each week.
He said: “We will have to build a really strong team and we will have a really strong squad, and that’s up to the players who want to be in the starting line-up, who want to improve and who want to show their best.
“Hopefully we will have a squad where it’s not clear all of the time who has to play but hopefully we can have real competition in the team, in a very good team so they understand it as a team but [with] competition for the first one to 11 places in the line-up.
“That’s what we want to create and it’s what we should try to create.”
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