Klopp Talk: Being With the Players Is “Like Coming Home”

The Liverpool squad is in Austria for their pre-season training camp and pretty much everything is sunshine and rainbows both on and off the training pitch. For Jürgen Klopp, the fact that the summer is shorter than it would normally have been makes no difference because the team is basically family and he’s just happy to see everyone again.

“That’s the best part of my job, to be honest; I’m surrounded by people I really, really like,” Klopp told the club’s website this weekend. “So it’s like meeting friends again if it’s players, if it’s you all, it’s just nice to come back and do what we are actually all best in. If I’m 100 per cent honest, I would have had not a massive problem if this break would have been a week longer or so, but absolutely no problem.

“When I left the holiday space and arrived here, in this moment it was like it always was since I’m here – just beautiful and just brilliant to meet all the people again. I’m completely happy and it’s always like coming home, even when we are not at home in the moment.”

The team’s training activities have focused on ball work and everything they can do to get them ready for their Community Shield match against Arsenal in less than two weeks.

“We never start with pure running, but of course the boys didn’t lose a lot,” Klopp added. “The plan for them was really rest for two weeks and then start with physical work for five days, so they didn’t lose anything pretty much.

“So we don’t do testing, like an endurance test or whatever which we usually do, it’s not necessary. We don’t have time for it on the other side because we play, meanwhile, in 13 days, our first competitive game [against Arsenal].

“It’s, of course, different because the status, the level is different, so the ball will be involved pretty much all the time but some running sessions will be there as well.”

It feels like we barely just lifted the trophy, but I don’t think anyone is saying no to a very quick return to regular season football.