'There's no rush' - Boss discusses adaptation of Thiago, Jota and Tsimikas
Jürgen Klopp explained why the quality Liverpool already possessed means he can be patient with his trio of summer signings.
Thiago Alcantara, Diogo Jota and Kostas Tsimikas have all made their debuts for the club since arriving during the transfer window.
But they will all be afforded a period of adaptation by their manager, who outlined why it may take time for some to adjust to certain playing demands of the Premier League champions.
Read on for the boss' thoughts...
On whether the busy schedule makes it difficult for the new players to adapt to the team...
You're right, it's a challenge of course but it's the situation. We do on the training pitch what we have to do. You cannot train a lot of intense stuff in between the games but you can work on tactics, that's possible. Not very long but working on tactics or positioning or stuff like this, you do a lot in meetings, you do a lot in talks and then on the pitch as well. So that's possible. I don't know how often we can do it during the week or whatever, we will see. But it's a constant process, let me say it like this. And then on the other side, because I'm a pretty simple person, our football is pretty simple. So it's not rocket science and that complicated what we do. It just needs a little bit of time to get used to it in moments, I would say – counter-press, stuff like this. But it's possible and it will not take ages, I would assume. But it will take time and we will see how long.
The three new players – don't forget Kostas – came in a team which worked pretty well before. So there's no rush, there's no need that we say, 'OK, if you don't play tomorrow then we have no chance, absolutely no chance.' That's absolutely good because that takes all the hectic out as much as we can. That's something we really like – that we can bring them in the right moment, in the right situations. [Against Lincoln], when Diogo came on, I didn't stand there and explain now, 'You have to be exactly here or there.' I wanted him to be as natural as possible – and he was. I really liked that. I saw a lot of the things which he's really good in – his behaviour between the lines, physically really strong, it's difficult to get him off the ball and all these kind of things. He knows where the goal is, so he tries to finish the situations off. So that's the first thing I always say, 'Come on, be yourself.' And then we start working on a few things and then hopefully you can be even better than before.
On Thiago's start at Liverpool and the other midfielders at the club...
I have to tell all you that we had a pretty good midfield before? I thought that was clear, to be honest. Look, I get it like it is. This time of the year, even in a COVID year, is for some people obviously the most exciting part of the year. That you say a new player is coming in, everybody's talking about new signings, who's coming and improving and all these kind of things. And then, all of a sudden we announce Thiago Alcantara and that's completely normal that people go crazy or mad and draw all the different pictures and stuff like this and how we could look now. In the end, football is not like this. You cannot just put in a player and say, 'So now we are 20 per cent better.' It's just not the case. I said it before, it's difficult to improve this team. It's difficult but it's possible, that's what we try. We try it on the training pitch and we try it, of course, with signings. It's all clear that Thiago has some skills, has some natural skills which made him the special player he is through all his career. That's of course the technique, that's of course the vision, that's of course the passing, that's of course he can demand rhythm and all these kind of things. That's something where he's really special. But now we need to train, work and need to get used to each other, that's how it is.
The Chelsea game was the perfect game for it because it was not about getting used to each other, [it was] that he could play in the centre exactly in that position and switch from one side to the other, chip the ball in behind, stuff like this – things which are easy for him. Games will not always be like this and, again, Thiago knows that as well. We have to fine-tune these kind of things and that will take time, like it always takes time. There will be some games where we will see, 'Ah, maybe we are not there yet.' Or not, I don't know. That was the reason why he didn't play [against Lincoln] because the boys who played need to recover now and we wanted to use this session today [Friday] to make a further step in the right direction, in training that we really work on something. That was the reason. But it will take time, or it usually takes time but we will see how long. But how I said, the start was really good. And once again, I love my midfield already and all the players who were there before in these positions and did the hardest work ever to make this team successful. It's a tough task to be a part of this.
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On why his teams always tend to play on the front foot...
Not sure if it's non-negotiable. Yes, we have an identity and we stick to that, that's true. We do different things in a game as well. That other teams adapt to us, I think, is normal. We do that as well to other teams, just in a different way. I know Chelsea defends against us different than they do against a lot of other teams. That could be because of the results we had in the last few games but usually in possession they do what they want to do, to be honest. They adapt to us, you could see how they tried to react to our full-backs and stuff like this, that's clear. It's just the way Frank sets up against us. How I said, we adapt as well. Not so much system-wise but in different positions we try to make sure that the other team cannot do exactly what they want. We think we have a wide range in the way we play, to be honest – I'm not sure if that's obvious! But intensity is always part of it. There's actually no reason for not being intense and we think there's no other chance for us to be successful. We cannot just want to play like another team and save some energy in this or that moment. We have to do what we have to do on a high intensity and I'm pretty sure the boys would say the same, to be 100 per cent honest – I didn't ask but I'm pretty sure they would say the same.
