Jürgen Klopp on Reds' start to pre-season, Mac Allister and Szoboszlai and becoming a grandad

The first batch of Reds returned to the AXA Training Centre on Saturday, followed by their teammates who represented their respective countries earlier in the summer on Tuesday, a number that included new signings Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai.

Then, on Thursday morning, the group came together to train as a collective for the first time as the schedule moved on to its next phase in Kirkby.

Liverpool’s preparations will ramp up over the course of a series of five pre-season friendlies, starting with Karlsruher SC in Germany next week, with all games available to watch live and exclusive on LFCTV GO.

After overseeing the day’s first session, Klopp sat down with Liverpoolfc.com at the training ground to reflect on the first few days’ work, the addition of Mac Allister and Szoboszlai and, away from football, becoming a grandad for the first time over the summer.

Read on to see what the manager had to say…

Jürgen, day five of another pre-season. How has it gone so far from your perspective?

Very good. Very good. We had not a slow start, but a start with a small group on Saturday and since Tuesday everybody is in. There are still a couple of injured players, of course, but everybody is here now and really looking good. The sessions are good, the intensity is good, mood is good, the weather was interesting - we’ve had pretty much everything already since we are back! But nothing to complain [about].

This morning was the first time the entire group trained together. How was that?

Nice. We are missing players still - Curtis is not here, Harvey is not here and then Stefan and Thiago are injured and a couple of others - but it was good. Quality is good, it is good fun. We are all full of energy, I think we can say that. It was a good break, it was an important break as well, but it was a long enough one as well. Now we are back and the boys are really ready to work, that’s the first impression I got.

You mentioned energy. I think it’s fair to say there was a real buzz around this place on Tuesday when the rest of the squad were back...

Absolutely. How I said, we don’t have to say it now too often and all the time, but we all know that we want to show a reaction - and the reaction doesn’t start on the first matchday, it starts with the first training day. That was clear; that’s how we left and that’s how we came back. Yes, there was a proper buzz when everybody was here again.

Obviously, there are two new faces with us in Mac Allister and Szoboszlai. How happy are you to have them with us?

Very happy! Two very good players. I was immediately thinking about nicknames and I thought it would be a great nickname for Alexis... Gary [McAllister]! He plays pretty good football, obviously, the same as Dom. 

It was pretty clear in the moment we signed them, the public reception was pretty good, internally it was outstanding, the boys know about football so they were immediately like, ‘Oh my God...’ so that’s really good. Now they are here and didn’t take long, let me say, to impress on the pitch as well, so that’s good. How I said, some changes, Trent cut his hair - [back to] the most successful haircut in his career, so he sacrificed the cool look for success, I like that!

Has anybody else surprised you since they came back?

No, there are no big surprises. The most important stuff, which doesn’t happen nowadays anymore, and that’s a player coming back five kilos more or something like that. The boys are really professional. It is a little misunderstanding, and maybe even the players misunderstand, that it is not important that you are at the fittest point on the first day of the pre-season. The players need a rest, they don’t have a lot. We will - and we can - help them to be in the best possible shape physically and in all other parts as well at the end of the pre-season, or a little bit into the season. The boys came proper, really - they did what they had to do. Yes, a couple did a bit more, but that’s fine as well.

As we said, it’s day five of pre-season. What’s the plan for the forthcoming days? What’s next in the preparation?

There is a big physical part, we cannot ignore that - and we will not. There is a big tactical part and when you do all the running stuff then you must do a lot of technical stuff as well because technique is one thing, but technique when you are slightly exhausted is a completely different thing. That’s what we do. It will be intense and there will be a lot of things, but we said last year: we started the new season last season already and that’s why we work now on how we want to play, how we want to set it up, how we can be more in a different set-up, more flexible and all of these kind of things. I am really looking forward to that. It’s already started; if you watched training you might have seen it. There are a couple of elements that we always need because that makes no difference - whatever we play, counter-press will be a big part. I hope we don’t have to use it that often because I want us to keep the ball and then in the end of possession, shoot it in the back of the net! It doesn’t work always like this so for that we need to work on that, we need to work on defending, on attacking... we know our issues and that’s what we work on. Not with the finger in all day and saying, ‘That was not good, that was not good.’ No, we start from a specific point and from there we just go through the things again with some players who know already and other players who didn’t hear it that often. In the end, we will be good.

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Finally, away from football, you had some special news over the summer… how is life as a grandad?

Finally, I don’t only look like one, I am one, so that’s cool! It’s perfect, an absolutely perfect summer. We both thought it’s a real blessing that we could be around for about four weeks to see him growing and all these kind of things, going through all the first phases. Yes, staying on the sideline but being involved anyway. It was good, really good, and everything is good - mum is good, dad is good and baby is good as well. It’s long ago that we were in that role, to be honest, but I can tell you it’s like riding a bike, you don’t lose it so it was there immediately again. It’s just beautiful, the most beautiful thing I experienced, probably, in the last 30-odd years, to welcome such a little wonderful human being.