Klopp on his first month, perfect moments and hugs

The German will mark exactly one month as Reds boss on Sunday – a day on which his side will contest their seventh match in just four weeks as Crystal Palace visit Anfield.

To date, Liverpool are unbeaten during his tenure, drawing their first three matches and winning their most recent trio.

And while he won’t be allowing himself anytime to sit back and reflect on the work that has been done until now, Klopp does feel there have been significant signs of improvement on the pitch.

He told his pre-Palace press conference at Melwood: “There’s been no time to analyse [my first month] and I don’t want to analyse because we feel we are in the middle of the race and there’s no break for us.

“Not even next week is a break for us because all of the players have to play and we have to do some other things.

“I’ve had some perfect moments of course but, for me, it’s not time to think about this. It’s been a very intensive month. Tomorrow it will have been seven games in four weeks, so it feels longer than four weeks!”

Klopp added: “It’s better and better and better because we’ve come closer after this time, we have the results we need to feel better, to be more confident.

“The good thing is that after these two matches last week, everybody wants to play the next game. We feel good and want to play tomorrow, want to train and that’s what we’ve seen [from the players].

“We’ve tried to give the players the time for recovery they need [after Kazan], with only short training and information today than we would have for a normal training session to prepare for Crystal Palace.

“It’ll be about what’s important because they [Palace] play differently to the other teams we’ve played until now, so they have to know about this. Then we can start.”

The hectic nature of Liverpool’s schedule during his time as manager so far has meant a large chunk of Klopp’s work with the squad has been focused on analysis as opposed to intensive physical efforts on the training pitch.

“We had our games, we spoke about the games, we had meetings, we had analysis meetings and we had good training sessions - not high-intensity because it’s not possible with only three days between the games, so we’ve had to think more about what to say,” said Klopp.

“As I said at the beginning, we have to turn small screws and that’s what we are doing at this moment, but the base was not so bad. Brendan did a really good job here, so it’s not that we should be showing them how football works. There is a good base in this team because of Brendan’s work.

“We can start to develop and start to come together because football can be different and every manager has different ideas. That’s what we’ve done and we’ve got a little bit of stability, that’s very important for our offensive play because you can feel free in attack and know that not each chance for the opponent is a goal.

“We feel good at the moment, but we know about our responsibility for our performance in the next game.”

One aspect Klopp and his backroom team have worked on with the players is their mentality and, in particular, dealing with the setback of conceding a goal.

He explained: “We had this situation against Southampton with the late, late equaliser and it was easy to see that at that moment everything changed, so it was easy to talk about.

“But the reaction has come from the players. If you can see problems, it’s not always necessary to put your finger in and say, ‘That was a problem’ – but if it’s a big thing, you have to talk about it, give solutions and talk about things you can do different.

“That’s what we did and that they did it in the next game [against Chelsea] – and it was because of the talent of the players. They more often react in the right way than in a bad way. They did it at Chelsea and that helped us a lot.

“For the next game, it was a different challenge in Kazan. In our opinion, we played a very good first half on a difficult pitch. To stay in the game, stay concentrated and not get nervous is a real big challenge in football if you are dominant. You can’t always be dominant, but if you are, you cannot get bored in the game and think, ‘What shall I do?’

“We spoke at half-time about what they can do better with some video clips. The players are reacting very well at the moment on our information and that feels good.”

The sight of Klopp enthusiastically embracing his players at full-time following matches has been a feature of the manager’s first few weeks at Anfield.

Asked what the thinking was behind it, he replied with a smile: “The players have no choice – I see after the game they don’t want a hug, but that’s my special thing and I don’t know what happens to me in moments like this.

“I like people who give their all - and they gave their all in these games. They did really well and I cannot do so much during the game, then I give a little [hug], they start recovery directly after the game and maybe it helps!”