Klopp: Intensity is always there

London: Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp insists the spectacle of empty stadiums will not lessen the intensity of any team if the Premier League gets the go-ahead to resume in June.

Top-flight players are returning to training this week after the clubs voted unanimously to do so at a shareholders’ meeting on Monday, the first significant step in the return to play protocols.

A number of hurdles still need to be overcome but any matches will take place behind closed doors, which was trialled to mixed reviews when the Bundesliga became the first major European league to come back last weekend. Liverpool have more reason than most for wanting the 2019-20 campaign to conclude as they need just two more wins to capture a first Premier League title.

And while Klopp acknowledged that keeping fans away from Anfield is far from ideal, he thinks the German top-flight’s restart proved that the competition and will to win is cheapened by the absence of spectators.

The former Borussia Dortmund boss said: “The perfect package of football is a full, packed Anfield stadium, two really good teams, big fight, super goals and at the end Liverpool win.

“But Anfield will not be packed for a while, so that’s what we have to accept. When we start, it goes really again for everything. The competition will make the intensity.