This archive report was first published on 19 May 2020.
May 19, 2020 - Liverpool, United Kingdom. Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is confident his team can manage without the 'best kick in your ass' of their Anfield crowd, should the Premier League season resume.
English top-flight players are set to return to training this week after a Premier League meeting on Monday gave the go-ahead to the first stage of the return to play protocols.
Matches, if they take place, will be behind closed doors and possibly at neutral venues. Liverpool were 25 points clear at the top of the table when the coronavirus pandemic suspended the season in March.
They now need just two more wins to claim a first English title in 30 years. Klopp, having watched his native Bundesliga resume last weekend without spectators, is optimistic his players can motivate themselves without a crowd.
“The competition will make the intensity,” Klopp said. “So it’s not about ‘oh, Liverpool have to win two games’. By the way, we have to win two games when we start –- it’s not ‘only two’, it’s two. We have to win them.”
Former Borussia Dortmund manager Klopp added: “We have to do it, unfortunately, without the best boost in the world and the best kick in your ass in the right moment in the world, from the Anfield crowd. But that’s how it is. It’s 100 percent (that) 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. That’s the perfect matchday.”
Players are now allowed to train in small, socially-distant sessions not lasting longer than 75 minutes. Klopp said: “From a physical point of view, the boys are in a good shape, I think. Then we have to start getting used to the pitch, football boots and balls again.”
