KLOPP’S LOCKED DOWN STARS IN BUBBLY MOOD
JURGEN KLOPP wants “characters” to step up during a unique summer where Liverpool will be holed up in a training camp for a month.
Quarantine issues meant the Reds had to scrap plans for their usual pre-season break and instead remain inside a bubble in Austria.
“The pandemic is still around so we cannot just say, ‘OK, go out there for a while’. We have to stay pretty much in a bubble all the time,” he said.
“The planning of the preseason was incredibly difficult.
“During the summer break everything changed, and it was really tricky. So we stay now for four weeks away. I’ve never done it before.
“There are moments when the boys are not entertained by us and then you need characters. They all need to step up.
“Not only the old ones, not only the experienced ones – everybody is responsible for a good mood.”
Klopp believes it will offer a chance for his team to bond after a campaign which fell short of their recent standards. Players like Mo Salah and Sadio Mane (inset) have had their first real break in two years and Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez are now back from long injury lay-offs. They will be joined in a fortnight by those internationals on duty at the Euros and Copa America and Klopp says the experience can help them grow stronger.
He added: “I never experienced a situation like that – 28 days is really long. But it’s good as well. We have enough time to train, to talk.
“And when players from the Euros and Copa come back we are hopefully able to bring them in without quarantine.
“That was all important. That we can be together in the bubble, fly as a bubble together to England so that we don’t have to get quarantined there.
“So we have to be creative and everybody is responsible for keeping the mood up.”