Klopp on Barcelona test, Mainz return and squad strength
As Liverpool prepare for a busy weekend, Jürgen Klopp has spoken of the intense test and challenge his squad will face as they prepare for their final two pre-season games ahead of the start of the new Premier League season.
First up is a mouthwatering encounter with Luis Suarez and Barcelona at Wembley on Saturday evening followed by an emotion return to Mainz for the boss in Germany on Sunday.
At a press conference at Melwood today, Klopp also gave his thoughts on the pre-season schedule so far and the shape of his squad. Read on to find out what the had to say to reporters...
On how happy he is with the pre-season so far...
Happy? I’m not sure if I am happy because a pre-season is very important and quite difficult because my expectations on pre-season are really high. I wanted to do it perfectly and it wasn’t because of a few injuries with our centre-halves and our goalkeeper not too good. It’s not a big problem but it wasn’t perfect. The first few weeks were really good because we could train a lot, the games were at the right moment and things like this for the players. Then the players came back from the Euros, who obviously were in a different physical situation than the others. That’s clear, so we had to do a lot but we still had games in the USA. We had one OK game, one game was good and the other game bad and I didn’t like it too much but you have to accept it, I know about it and things like this happen. The last day was difficult circumstances in St. Louis. We are back training here and now it’s the moment where we really have to fight back because it gives us a few signs, which players are a little bit tired. We have two games, so that’s how pre-season is and what we have to go through. We created this situation in our planning and that’s it. I’m fine with it how it works until now, but I’m not happy because there’s still work to do and for a few players for sure their pre-season will go into the Premier League season. We have to do it, we need to train more than we actually do when it’s the normal season, say from September on it you want. But then we will have players away with their international teams so it doesn’t make me happy but I knew it before so I’m fine.
On looking for quality rather than quantity in his squad...
It is always like this. It makes sense and if you need quantity you need to have a big enough squad so that’s important and what we are looking for. At this point we have a lot of players but like I said [the transfer window] is not finished and at the end I don’t think we will have 30 players or something like this, so it will be smaller number. We saw a few really good players who could be involved some games in the season, so we know this and that’s how we make the squad, but that’s not a final decision and it’s not a number we think about. Of course, the quality is much more important than the quantity but there are moments like we have in this moment when quantity would be nice too. There are a lot of sessions to do and a lot of games to play and all the sessions are very important, all the games are important, so you need to do it but on the other side you need the players for it. There’s no final decision on how many players we will have in the squad this season.
On two special games this weekend against Barcelona and Mainz...
It’s good. It’s quite busy again and I’ve said a few times in this pre-season you need to create special situations to go through. The Barcelona game is [one where] always anything can happen, they are always really strong. Everybody could see that against Leicester they still can play football so that will be a real test for us. I’m quite sure the next day, the match against Mainz from the intensity side it could be more than against Barcelona. Okay, they have still two weeks to go [until the Bundesliga starts again] but it’s their season opener and it’s a big game for them. Maybe it’s only a big game for me on our side but it’s a big game for them 100 per cent so that will be really tough too so that’s good. But in the plans it’s nice to think about Barcelona and that you are coming home to Mainz or whatever but now it’s work, only work and nothing to enjoy. It’s how I said, we created this intense situation in playing Barcelona then flying to Mainz on Saturday night and playing again at 2.45pm on Sunday. That will be interesting but we have to be ready and that’s the thing we wanted.
On how he looks back at seven great years as manager of Mainz...
I love my memories around Mainz of course and I have still a lot of friends there but that’s not too important. I think I spoke a few times about it and it was special for Zeljko [Buvac] and myself, a very special time as we both played there and then became manager and coach. It was a great time and we learned everything. What we learned - especially myself and what I know today - we learned there because we had to because no-one else could do it, so we had to start ourselves without other people watching what we were doing so that’s our way. We have still a lot of friends there but when we come back it’s not a time to meet friends again. It’s like when we played Borussia Dortmund [in the Europa League last season] even when it’s only a friendly game or whatever then it’s not a time for me to be too private. I’m not able to do this unfortunately so it’s an important game and that’s why we are there. Hopefully it’s nice for the people and the crowd to watch it, both teams can do their best and all that stuff but for us it’s very important because it’s our last test before we go to Arsenal. It’s a nice story [going back to Mainz] but it’s more for other moments to think back and it’s not this moment that I start to have day dreams.