Jürgen's verdict on pre-season, Arsenal clash and Wenger
As the Reds' opening Premier League clash against Arsenal edges ever closer, Jürgen Klopp sat down with Liverpoolfc.com to discuss how he felt pre-season preparations went for his side and look ahead to taking on the Gunners.
On what’s pleased him most from Liverpool’s pre-season programme…
The training sessions. We had wonderful training sessions, in the first three weeks and then when all the other players came in again they showed their fantastic attitude – that’s really important – and they were open to new things. In pre-season you can do a lot more and with ‘a lot more’ I don’t mean intensity, I mean about the kind of training, the tactical things – different things we could involve in our training. They were really open because a few things were 100 per cent new, completely new, to them. Seeing then how ready they are to learn, that’s quite exciting and so that’s what I enjoyed most.
On putting the hard work into practice against Arsenal…
We showed and we saw a lot [in pre-season]. Most of the time I would say it was very positive. It’s not too serious that the last performance in pre-season was not too positive. It is like it is – you have to respect the quality of the opponent and you can only work with your own expectations. When you meet another opponent, you have to respect they too have their own targets, aims and ambitions. That’s always exciting because you only know about your status quo – you have no idea about their status quo and you should not think too much about them, especially not in the first one, two or three games of a season. Of course we saw them because they’ve had pre-season games too and we had our scouts there, so we know as much as we can know. The rest is a little bit of a dark room and so you have to go there and work with the information you have, especially if you’re trying to bring through your own idea and make them as many problems as possible. That’s what we’ve been working on and these last three or four days are now for bringing freshness into the legs and into the mind. It’s not the highest intensity in this week – we stopped intensity on Sunday and now we are in something like a normal rhythm, and that’s what we have to use.
On how Liverpool’s training plan will develop over the season…
We could only set a base [in pre-season], but you have to refresh it all the time. That’s what we’ll do and we will have intensity sessions during the year. Last year we had three games a week, but now we will only have one so we need to have intense sessions. It’s not like a pre-season when you have two or three sessions in a row and then you know in the next two days you’ll need to rest so you can bring the benefits of training. If you’re always hard, hard, hard, hard then on the fifth day, the players will be more than down. That’s how training works. You need to set intense points, and then you have to rest or recover for long enough and then you’ll have the benefit. Of course, there will be a few intense sessions and we don’t have a special rhythm for the whole season – it depends how we play, what we did in the last game, what we have to do in the next game and all that stuff. It’s not making a plan for the whole year, it’s making a plan for the next day and then seeing how it works.
On starting the season with a big game at Arsenal…
Of course, it’s exciting and looking forward to a game against Arsenal, you want to be – or need to be – in your best shape to beat a team like them in London. That’s the first big challenge of the season. But we’ve known about it for a few weeks. I think a few people thought, ‘oh, that’s a nice start’ with three away games – Arsenal, Burnley, Tottenham, national break, Leicester and then Chelsea. And now also Burton. So that’s really intensive, but it is how it is. It’s the best day to meet Arsenal because it’s the only day we could choose, so I am happy about it. Now we will see who is in the better shape, who has the better plan, who has more confidence about what they want to do and all that stuff. It is how it is – nobody knows exactly, but everybody hopes. Big expectations from all sides, but now we have to show we are ready to show our best.
On Arsene Wenger…
He’s a legend. That’s how it is. Becoming an Arsenal legend is not the most easy job in the world. I am pretty sure they’ve had a pre-season that they’re fine with. They’ve had a few injury problems, but we should not think too much about them. They will still be active in the transfer market. I read today in the newspaper that Arsene said he will work as long as he is physically able to. That’s one plan for life! It shows how big his love is for the game and for the work he is doing. He is very experienced and a very good manager, so if we win it will not be because of him!