Press conferenceJürgen Klopp on Liverpool's support in Asia, transfers and Darwin Nunez arrival

The Reds boss was questioned by journalists at Singapore National Stadium ahead of the latest summer test against Crystal Palace on Friday.

During the briefing, Klopp offered some detail on what Liverpool are hoping to gain from a preparation perspective from their Asia tour, as well as whether they are likely to add any further players to their squad before the close of the transfer window.

Read on to see what the manager had to say in Singapore…

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On taking part in pre-season tours...

These trips are really a wonderful, cool thing. The only problem is you have to fly 14 or 15 hours and you train at completely different times. The humidity is not exactly what we are used to. So, it is good and not so good, but the best thing about it is we come closer to our fanbase. Our fanbase here in Asia, we know how big it is and we know how how important it is to come here and we love doing it. From a training point of view, and first and foremost I am a coach, it is not my favourite thing to do because if we can go to Austria for two weeks and train twice a day, that would be better. Here we have appearances and stuff like this; it’s very important, but a pre-season for us, for a coach, is to create situations which we hopefully don't face during the year. Like tougher situations, we train in the middle of the night pretty much when nobody is not ready, you train in extreme heat and all of these kind of things. We will not face that in England but it helps us anyway.

From a sports point of view, it is really helpful as well. But the most important thing is to come here and let the people see us, not only on television but live as well. We have today here 12,000 people for the open training session... that’s absolutely impressive! It’s really great. The only problem we have, sometimes the people probably think he could sign their shirt and that’s true, I could, the problem are the 500 people around and I don’t have time for 500 people. We try to do it as often and as much as possible, but we cannot satisfy everybody’s wishes. That’s the problem a little bit but I hope the people are happy anyway.

On other Premier League teams strengthening this summer...

It happens every year. [It does not change] our chances in our specific games against our rivals, whoever they may be – and I have figured out we have around about 19! They always do that and we try to do it as well. I don’t think our chance is worse than last year or massively better than last year, not at all. Look, we played now for a while consistently on a pretty high level and that’s really difficult to do, to be honest. It’s not that we just think now we will be good again. Winning a Premier League is the most difficult thing I have experienced in my life and I have done the job already for a while. That’s what we try to prepare for, that we are ready for Fulham and then for all the others in the league. Of course, before that, we play Man City and we try to be ready for that as well, but really we respect all the opponents in the Premier League and that’s really difficult and nothing to do with who they signed or who came in and stuff like this. The good news is in the end they can only line up 11. We have the same number and then let’s give it a go. That’s what we try. We can improve, we have to and we want to and that’s what we are working on. Then, we can be again this one team that nobody wants to play against and if we can be that then we have a good chance to win some football games.

On how the transfer market has changed during his career...

A lot, obviously a lot. These kind of things happen. The numbers [about Darwin Nunez] you are telling are not right, but it’s not a problem – I know which kind of number is going around in the world out there. When you want to sign a striker as exciting as Darwin is, that’s the market and you have to pay the price. As I said, it’s not the price you mentioned and not the prices going around, but it’s no problem. I said so many things in my life and life caught me then later and showed me that my imagination was obviously not clear enough for how quickly life can change. That’s how it is. After that, we bought a centre-half for quite a decent fee, we bought a goalie for quite a decent fee. Our situation is always the same, we try to level it somehow, the things we invest in the boys and in the players we sell, it’s kind of that it’s not going out of any kind of range and that worked so far, but I know, I heard it immediately. I forgot that I said this but everybody reminded me and then I thought, ‘Oh, OK, yeah…’ I’ve said worse things in my life, to be honest, but that’s one of them.

On fans in Singapore being most excited to see him personally and how it makes him feel…

Thank you very much, first of all, for that. It was never my aim to be in the middle of interest in these kinds of things. I am the biggest fan and biggest supporter of my football team; I admire them so much and I think each and every single player would deserve to receive the maximum love or attention. But I realise when I step out of the hotel that the noise changes slightly and it’s nice, to be honest. In this business it’s like that, because you are the manager of a really good football team and my face is more often on the camera than probably other faces, and I don’t run while the camera is on me so people can really recognise me. That’s it. It’s nice but it was never my aim that this would happen.

On whether Liverpool will be active in the transfer market again this summer…

How I said, if nobody wants to leave – and no player came to me with that request yet and I don’t expect it really, to be honest – there is no need for a new midfielder. We cannot just add on midfielders. We respect the contracts with our boys as well, that means as long as we signed them they get all our support – in training, between the sessions, during the games and between the games. That is the situation we have; really, you can count our midfielders. And, for me, Harvey Elliott is a new signing as well, after last season how he started. He is very young, came back brilliant, then had a little low, that is completely normal after being that long out. So, really excited about seeing him.

If you go through, the quality of the players we have is really, really high. People make one mistake. They underestimate the chance that a player who didn’t play his best season last year might play the best season this year. It’s like football fans – I’m not sure all, but some – don’t give people the chance to improve. It’s like, ‘He didn’t play well last year, he cannot score goals, he cannot do that, so get him out of the house.’ Thank God, I am not like this; I judge potential as much as the last season. Actually, the last season is not really interesting, it’s gone. When a player didn’t perform on his highest level, it is at least 50 per cent my fault. So, I have to improve, I have to say the right things, I have to say better things, I have to help him in a better way. Because it is not about the potential of these players, that is incredibly high. It is about bringing it onto the pitch and why should we stop that after a year where we nearly won four trophies? I know we didn’t but we were as close as somehow possible. That’s the reason. If these boys want to stay, they will stay and then we will work with that.

On there being any pressure on Nunez and helping him to handle it…

I am not worried at all. The general judgement is 0.0 per cent interesting. And it will be like this, and we all know it’s a joke or a game for some people to pick out some situations where a player is not doing well. The only really important thing first and foremost is how I judge the situation for the player. I couldn’t be more calm about it. I am completely convinced about his potential. And actually what our people think, the Liverpool supporters in the whole world. They should know now after a while that new players need time and get time, and we should be the first – all Liverpool supporters on this planet – who just delete the fee we paid. Just delete it, it’s not important.

He’s now a boy from us and now we do absolutely everything to not only see the things we saw from him at Benfica; no, from there we go. This is the basis. And again, it is my responsibility to help Darwin that he can fulfil his full potential. And I am in it. I am in that responsibility. I’m completely calm. I know with strikers it is like this, he missed a chance and then we have these nerves, people out there [saying], ‘Oh my God, he missed a chance.’ I can promise it will not be the last, for no striker in the world. They will miss chances, that’s how it is. Having them is good. And from there we go. Again, that is only a game I think a little bit from other clubs, which is normal for supporters of other clubs; that is what our fans probably do with signings of Manchester United and stuff like this. We cannot take that serious. Really, with half a football brain you don’t doubt the potential of Darwin Nunez and now we have to help him that he can fulfil that as quick as possible. That’s all.

On Takumi Minamino and his time at Liverpool…

Yes, he will succeed in Ligue 1, I wish him all the best. We miss him, honestly. He is a fantastic player and he was a fantastic part of our squad. We should not forget that as an offensive player coming to Liverpool in a time when the settled front three were Mane, Firmino and Salah and the new signing was Diogo Jota, it is not like you have to be a bad player to not be in the first line-up. No, you have to be a world-class player to be around and be the next one coming on. Taki did incredibly well for us and I would have loved to keep him, but I understand 100 per cent he wants to play more often and more regularly. That’s absolutely right from his point of view, 100 per cent. We wish him all the best. We can easily say we would not have won one trophy if Taki Minamino had not been with us last year, he scored all the decisive goals to get us to the final. I know that he enjoyed his time at Liverpool but of course he wanted to play more, that’s why it made sense to move on and go to Monaco, which is a super club for him. I am really convinced he will do incredibly well.

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