Jürgen: How cold weather has affected our Newcastle prep

Large parts of the UK have been beset by freezing conditions this week, with Merseyside among the areas hit with sub-zero temperatures and plenty of snow.

Klopp paid tribute to the ground staff at Melwood for ensuring disruption to the Reds' training schedule was kept to a minimum despite those difficult conditions.

However, he did admit that small tweaks have had to be made to preparations in order to keep his players from sustaining muscle injuries. 

The German told reporters: "You cannot do exactly what you would do, it was really too cold. It's not too cool for muscle, that's how it is. 

"So we changed the programme, you cannot do tactical things, we had to do it quite lively. Tactical training is quite often talking on the pitch about different situations - wait, stop here. 

"[But] we didn’t do it on the pitch, we had the training and then spoke afterwards about it inside! 

"It was really cold, the wind cooled it down massively but the snow was not one day a problem. Monday or Tuesday when we came in, it was snowing everywhere, but there was nothing on the pitch. 

"The boys here did a fantastic job. Maybe all the heating is on our pitches, that's why it's so cold inside! 

"It's good because I think it will be the same circumstances tomorrow, so it's the best preparation you can have [to] get used to it. It's not that difficut, it's [just] different." 

Following Nathaniel Clyne's return to full training, Klopp has the rare luxury of picking from a squad with no injury absentees - though two of his players are currently sidelined by illness.

Asked if his rotation policy during the busy months of December and January has contributed to that strong fitness record, he added: "Since we spoke about [having a fully-fit squad] the last two weeks or so, we never had a full squad! 

"Ben Woodburn and Gini Wijnaldum are already ill for a week or so, so obviously it's not only a little cold. That can always happen. 

"Rotation, yes we did it in a specific part of the season when we knew [it would help] from our experience in the last few years. 

"It was always clear, if we had the opportunity we would have done much more rotation in the first year in November/December but it was not possible. 

"When I came in we had injured players and we had to use what we had from the fit players and then afterwards the fit players from November were injured in January. It was not too cool. 

"It was not that we didn’t know about it, only it was clear in the moment that if we have the opportunity then we would do it and that's what we did. 

"Now in this moment we have no big [injuries] that's true but hopefully it stays like it. I get the list of who is available today for training after this press conference and hopefully nothing happened overnight. 

"The weather is strange and a cold or flu is, for us, as difficult to handle as a ligament issue. [A ligament injury] is longer but for the next game it’s the same influence. 

"It's, I think, what everybody would have done if [they had] the opportunity to do it, a little bit of rotation. And now we still change the team sometimes. 

"It's not always to rest players, it's about using the competition in the team to perform again. You can always say, 'OK, that's the team I want to play so let them play the next four/five weeks', but that's only possible as long as they really go.

"When other players make pressure in training and say, 'Now we want to show [ourselves] as well', then it's probably a good idea to give them the opportunity. 

"You have, then, fresh legs and a 100 per cent motivated and greedy team on the pitch, which is the most important thing."