Klopp Praises "Mastermind" Kornmayer

Keeping a full squad of professional footballers healthy and performing at the top level for a full season is no easy task. Where most athletes can spend large parts of the year building their fitness levels and without pressure to perform if nursing small knocks and niggles, only peaking for short periods or single competitions in a full season, footballers must remain at or near peak performance levels for the better part of ten months.

Last year, Liverpool struggled to do so. Over the course of 63 matches - one every 4.5 days on average - the squad was ravaged by injuries to key players, with muscle injuries - and hamstrings in particular, leading to Klopp famously dubbing it the "shit word of the day" - cropping up at regular intervals.

In an effort to remedy this situation, the German turned to his former rivals, Bayern München, and poached their fitness and conditioning boss, Andreas Kornmayer. His compatriot may have been at his new post for less than a month, but Klopp is pleased with his new acquisition:

"First of all he’s an absolute mastermind in all the things he has to do for us. He’s an experienced guy who has worked together with the best teachers and the best players.

"Education and experience are the most important things in this job and he combines these two things in the perfect way. He fits together perfectly in our coaching team.

"We didn’t know each other before he came here, but he fits really well. He’s smart, nice and funny - I think that’s quite important because we’re together so much every day so if there’s a boring guy around it makes not too much sense and he’s the opposite!

"So it’s very good, and he feels really good in this team."

While it's nice to know that new guy has jokes, what fans are mostly interested in is whether he can do his job well and keep the players healthy. His track record at Bayern, while somewhat marred by a rough last year, has been solid, and the Bavarians typically maintained high quality performances with a healthy squad through long seasons while consistently competing on three fronts.

Hopefully, Lucas' hamstring strain against Huddersfield and Nathaniel Clyne's "tightness" ahead of the Chelsea game are merely the final residue of last year's troubles, and not omens of what the club can expect in the new season.