Jürgen Klopp on Community Shield, transfer window and Brewster

The Liverpool manager spoke to the media via video call ahead of the FA Community Shield clash with Arsenal at Wembley on Saturday.

In addition to discussing the Reds’ preparations for the fixture – including a squad fitness update – Klopp was also asked about the transfer window and whether he might require a bigger squad to deal with the demands of the forthcoming campaign, and more.

Read a summary of the briefing below…

On whether this match comes at a good time in his team’s preparations…

Would I have wanted to play a proper game after two weeks’ preparation? No. But we know it for a while already. It took a while until we had any schedule, but since we know it we accepted it 100 per cent. We had now two weeks’ training until then, worked really hard, which everybody who wanted to see it could see in the Salzburg game because the boys obviously had some heavy legs; we try to make sure they are not that heavy anymore, but it’s for us like it is for Arsenal. So we prepare for a whole season, one of the most intense we’ll ever experience in our lives because of the amount of games, the time we have for that and all these kinds of things. It’s not perfect but it’s as perfect as it can be. We will try everything to win the game, that’s how it is. Arsenal will probably do the same.

On whether this game is more than a friendly…

Actually we don’t have friendlies really. We have ‘test’ games, training games and this kind of stuff. It’s neither, nor. It’s a competition. It’s really rare you have the perfect time to prepare for a specific game. If you would ask me how long I want to have time for a pre-season, I would say give me six weeks with a full squad, that would be great. We have, until the season starts, four weeks, which will be slightly interrupted by international duties and all that stuff, and now of course by this game. I would be very surprised if this would be the best game we play this season but we should be ready to fight for a result because the opponent has a similar situation. So, just give it a proper try, give everything you have and try to win it. That’s all I can say about it. It’s not a test game, it’s not a friendly, it’s a proper game – against Arsenal anyway. So we will try whatever we can.

On the possibility of further transfer business…

We brought already players in; Kostas, we brought in – not brought in, but they are coming closer and closer – the kids. They are coming closer. That looked really well in the pre-season. I don’t know what will happen, to be honest, but there’s a long time to go until October 6. It will be interesting to see what other teams are doing, but we are more or less in our situation and we will deal with our situation like we always did. I think the philosophy of this club is pretty clear, we always did that. We will see how much we can, or how much we want, to spend and all these kinds of things. So, nothing really to say about it.

On whether Rhian Brewster is part of his first-team plans for 2020-21…

In the moment he is, and then we have to see what will happen in the next few weeks or so. We want to use Rhian but we want to help Rhian as well so that’s why we have to make decisions, but not now obviously. He looks really promising. I know goals are the most important thing in the football world, so obviously he can score goals [and] that’s good and all the rest, we will see. He is still a young boy. In this position, as No.9 up front, experience helps a lot. We have to see how we can give him the experience – is it here [or] is it somewhere else? I only mention it because it’s not decided yet, why should we? There’s absolutely no reason to rush anything in that thing. He is our boy and now in the moment he is here. He will be involved tomorrow, in the squad for sure, and that’s it.

On Georginio Wijnaldum’s future…

Look, that’s an open contract situation obviously, otherwise you would know probably, and that means we don’t talk about it. I never did since I have to do press conferences so why should I change it now? That’s all between us and the player and this kind of thing. It’s all good in the moment, it’s all fine. Gini looked very good in the pre-season, played obviously a couple of good seasons for us, so that’s all I can say about that.

On whether he needs a bigger squad for this specific season…

We will see, we’ve never been in a situation like that. If you get too many injuries during a season you are never prepared for that, you can usually not sort that problem beforehand with the biggest squad ever. Yes, numbers in the squad make sense. We have a big squad in the moment, a lot of young boys involved – they are all promising and all good. The number, the size of the squad, is absolutely OK in the moment. We have injured players and still can take a bigger squad tomorrow to London, but still some players will not be involved. That shows you the number is OK. Probably you talk about the quality and stuff like this, it’s again nothing really to talk about. I’m happy with what we have but we look constantly for improvements; the only difference is we look for improvements as well internally, how can we improve the players and how can we make them more ready for the specific occasions? That’s what we do.

Is the biggest squad ever the solution for next season? I don’t know, we will see how it is. Nothing really to say. It will be intense, but nobody is moaning in the moment – we are all happy that we can play at all. It’s just [that] two weeks’ pre-season and then playing such an important game tomorrow is not ideal. But nobody would moan, because we are happy we can play these games. Then two weeks after that we start the season, then from these two weeks or 10 days, a lot of international players are away. Is that perfect? No, but nobody moans because we take it, we are just happy that we can play again. That’s how we have to approach the whole season. The time is still uncertain for all of us – not only in football but in football as well. The situation is not sorted, that we are all living in, so we should not deal with it like it is sorted. We have to show responsibility for a lot of people in the world, in the countries and in the club, especially here. That’s what we try to consider. We don’t live in dreamland in the moment where we say, ‘Come on, let’s bring him in, let’s bring him in, let’s bring him in’ and then we realise later on we have some other problems. We deal with our situation, which is a good one, but we deal with the situation already for a while and we try to, or think we should, do that for a bit longer. Because it’s still uncertain out there and we should not forget that.