Klopp Talks Training and Stuttgart

Ahead of this afternoon’s first pre-season game against Stuttgart, manager Jürgen Klopp, deep into training with his players in Austria, updated the official site about the team’s progress as well as his thoughts on their opponents.

“It’s just nice,” Klopp enthused over the ongoing preparations. “With all the hard work we have to do, we try to create a little bit of competition when possible. Most of the time it’s just about preparing ourselves for the season, all of us for the season. That’s pretty hard work.

“So far the training sessions obviously looked really good, the intensity level is quite exciting, to be honest. Without me asking for what we are used to investing in a training is pretty special. As long as we keep that going, we will be at least physically pretty fit for the season. That’s for sure.”

VfB Stuttgart have had a rocky last few seasons, including being relegated into the second division via playoff in 2018-19. But they crawled their way out, and this season will make their Bundesliga return after a year away.

“Stuttgart got promoted last season, a few weeks ago, let me say it like this. It’s a first division club, a historical Bundesliga club, if you want, but had to go the hard way to the second Bundesliga,” Klopp said. “But now they are back, pretty young team, pretty lively, don’t know too much about them, to be 100 per cent honest, but I don’t want to know too much about them, I just want us to react on what they are asking for – that’s, for me, pre-season as well. So there will not be a long meeting and I will tell everything what I know about the opponent because I just don’t know a lot about the opponent, apart from most of the players.”

The game kicks off at 5PM BST / 12PM EST and can be watched on LFCTV or LFCTV Go.