The Liverpool manager has taken the remaining squad members and their families away to Tenerife
With a succession of games since joining the club, Jurgen Klopp has barely seen the wood for the trees since last October, playing 38 games so far as Liverpool manager in a season that still has over two months to run.
Considering there’s the possibility of playing another five games in the Europa League, Klopp could have overseen 52 games by the end of his 8 months in charge. It’s fair to say that’s more than most managers will oversee in 18 months at most clubs.
So, with that in mind, the Liverpool manager has jetted off to Tenerife with the Reds squad that aren’t taking part in the international fixtures this week and Jurgen has spoken to Liverpoolfc.com about the reasons for taking the remaining players away.
He said: “It’s pretty easy. First of all, the weather is not too good at the moment in Liverpool so we can train in Tenerife – it’s a little bit better.
“We have wind, so we feel a little bit familiar, but we have sun so everything for training is really perfect, 20 degrees or something like this. [It is a] big group, 13 players in training this morning, two goalkeepers, so everything was OK.
“That’s the main reason why we are here – that we can train in different circumstances because it is a long year [and a] long season for the players so they need to change a little bit.
“The biggest opportunity we could get from our owners, and from Ian Ayre, Mike Gordon and John [Henry], is that we could take our families here, so it’s a great atmosphere.
“They work hard and then we have time for the family in a really nice place. Until now, it’s close to perfect to be honest.”
After the disappointment of a late defeat to Southampton on Sunday, a change of scenery is probably a good thing for those players not with their countries, particularly considering most of their team mates are training and playing in warmer climes.
And having the backing of the club’s owners to takes the player’s families away is something Klopp really appreciates, believing it engenders a good, relaxed atmosphere. He continued: “You should see, it’s a brilliant atmosphere. They have breakfast together, lunch together and then they have time off.
“Monday night we had dinner together, yesterday they could go out with their girlfriends, wives and the kids and have dinner for their own.
“It’s really nice to see all this big Liverpool FC family, all the girls behind us but [also] the children of these guys. It’s great. I think it’s training, that’s why we are here.
“But of course it brings us all a little bit more together and [to] understand more who we are working with. I like it, it’s the first time that I did it but it’s for sure not the last time.”
