Press conferenceJürgen Klopp discusses Community Shield, season ahead, training and more

The Liverpool manager answered journalists’ questions via video link from the squad’s training camp in Austria to preview Saturday’s contest with Manchester City at the King Power Stadium.

Read on for a summary of what he had to say...

​​On the Women’s Euro 2022 final between England and Germany this weekend…

First and foremost, I really have to say, I love women’s football, it’s outstanding. The quality of the tournament is insane. England is doing exceptionally well, I saw two games. I saw three games of Germany, they do really well as well. I think it’s a really good final, two intense teams face each other. I was in contact a little bit; you can imagine as much as I love England, in this specific case my heart is on the German side. But the better team might win, I’m completely fine with that. At Wembley, sold out, with the English crowd it will be a massive challenge for Germany.

But most important I think is the face the women’s football showed. It’s a fantastic game. We all knew that before and women’s football over the last few years exploded in their development. It’s tactically on an incredibly high level, technically on an incredibly high level, the intensity of the game means it’s physically really, really good. I love watching it, I really love watching it. Congratulations to all the teams who were part of it because it is a commercial for football, not only for women’s football. It just shows how fantastic this game is.

We will see. I think England is slight favourite because of playing at home but Germany has a chance as well and that’s enough.

On how long it took him to ‘get over’ last season and which fine margins he has been contemplating during the summer…

It took me a day and then we had a parade in Liverpool and I was fine with everything because we knew obviously it was close, we knew it was unlucky in moments, these kinds of things, but anyway it’s sports and we accept the rules. One point more is enough after 38 matchdays and one goal more is enough in a football game usually as well. We accept that. So it took me not long.

The summer, what was my conclusion of the last season? I don’t think it makes too much sense to think like this. We played an incredibly high level, we were consistent, all these kinds of things. We played good football – not always but very often – and we were deserved winners in the games we won. We fought hard, these are all things we have to do again. Of course, we have a little change in our team.

We lost Sadio, who was a fixed line-up player for six years. That’s clear. It’s always like this; we cannot only try to stick together forever, we have to make changes. When Sadio came and told us he wants to face a new challenge, because it was early enough we accepted that and said yeah, when the club is coming and everything goes well then we can do that. We had time to prepare that situation because he came early and that’s what we did. Now we have to find together again, that’s completely normal as well. It was always in pre-seasons like this and this year is no different, but with the difference that one fixed point is gone. It will be interesting.

But the good thing is we don’t have to think too far, we just have to find a way to win the football games, the specific football games on the weekend. So, now on Saturday, which is early. I like the competition but I think again here it would be possible to find another date for it maybe. We had a longer season than other teams and now we have a shorter pre-season than other teams. It makes not too much sense. Germany plays the Super Cup final and for that day the teams that are involved don’t have to play one cup round. There are opportunities but maybe we can think about that, or somebody can think about that. We have to find a way and that’s what we try definitely. That’s what we are working on since we are together again. Now in two days the season starts again and I’m really looking forward to it.

On whether the Community Shield will have any bearing on what will happen this season, or whether it’s just a ‘pre-season friendly’...

The situation is that it’s a very important game, but the situation is that we still have to prepare a season, so we cannot ignore that. So we played last night against Salzburg, we lost 1-0, we trained the day before twice, so pretty intense, that’s what we have to do. I cannot ignore the fact that after this important game is a season coming up. So we have to extend our pre-season, if you want, into the season. We play on Saturday against City and we play on Sunday a pre-season test game, whatever, against Strasbourg. Then we play Fulham and the next day we play another game, just that we can extend our pre-season, that’s what we have to do. Because from mid-August on, I think we play every three days again, so there’s no time for training anymore. So we try to do the right things but, of course, then the schedule is always a challenge to deal with and that’s how it is – not the first time, it’s always like this.

The game on Saturday, will it show a lot about the season? I expect two good teams. I saw last night, even when we lost, especially in the second half, I saw us in a really good shape. I hope that we can bring that on the pitch on Saturday as well. But, of course, it will be a challenge just to play now 90 minutes. I’m not sure how the weather in England is but it can be hot as well, so that all comes then together. We will see. But if you win it, it’s a very important competition. If you lose it, then it becomes lesser important.

On having time to train and how beneficial that is to someone like Luis Diaz, who arrived in January...

It’s important for everybody. So, you need to get used to each other again. That’s how it is. But we can build on patterns we used in the past, obviously because the majority of the team is together for a longer time, so that’s really good. But we brought in some fresh blood as well, so we can say Luis now, we can for sure say he’s still in that category and, of course, Darwin and, of course, Fabio. But it’s good for all of us. We said it plenty of times that this game only works really if you can work on the training pitches. You just can’t play every day, so you need time on the training pitch to work together, to work on different things, tactical stuff defensively, offensively. And the only time we really have is the pre-season, that’s why we love it and use it as good as we can and train as often as is somehow possible.

That means then in the same moment we play always out of full training the pre-season games, which makes it on some days just impossible to perform on a high level. But we get watched by the whole world and then everybody is like, ‘Oh my God, how does that look?’ and these kind of things. But we cannot do everything in the same moment. Sports science, if you train and never feel the intensity, then something is wrong with training. So you can only get an effect from training if you reach a specific amount of kilometres, if you want, these kind of things. So we have to do that and we did it, so from that point of view I’m fine. We will see if we are fresh on Saturday. I cannot promise that but we will try to fight with all we have.

On Fabio Carvalho ‘fitting in really well so far’...

Absolutely, but last night he was tired as well, you could see that. He’s a technical player, he’s incredibly creative and we will have a lot of fun with him definitely. That’s a good example because Fabio last night was OK but can be much better, and that’s just how it is. You need all these kind of things, you need these little lows as well. I’m really happy with him. He showed up, he’s in the middle of the team after a short period of time and that’s a good sign for the team but for him as well. So, he’s an open, young man and a top addition for us.