LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Monday, September 16, 2019: Liverpool's manager Jürgen Klopp during a training session at Melwood Training Ground ahead of the UEFA Champions League Group E match between SSC Napoli and Liverpool FC. (Pic by Laura Malkin/Propaganda)

Jurgen Klopp gearing Liverpool up for “very important” three weeks

Jurgen Klopp is gearing his side up to hit “100 percent” by the time they meet Everton upon their return to fixtures, in less than three weeks’ time.

The Reds returned to contact training on Thursday with Klopp able to oversee his entire playing squad for the first time after the Premier League moved into phase two of ‘Project Restart’.

Fixtures have been given a return date of June 17, with Klopp and Co. expected to turn out for their clash with Everton on the weekend of June 20.

It means players and coaches alike now have a target to work towards having been forced to undertake a balancing act of keeping the squad ticking over without a return date, which has been a challenge for the fitness staff throughout football’s suspension.

The boss has readily coined the current training period as a ‘pre-season’ and had tipped his side not to hit their peak until their third game back.

He did, however, state that it depended on “how long we will get” between the return to training and fixtures resuming, which is a little over three weeks – a period of time Klopp feels is enough to get his side back to 100 percent.

“We don’t have to be match-fit now,” he told the club’s official website.

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, USA - Saturday, July 20, 2019: Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold during an open training session at Fenway Park ahead of a friendly against Seville on day five of the club's pre-season tour of America. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

“We try it with increasing intensity, day by day, but we have to be fit on the 19th or 20th, whichever day they will give us against Everton, I think. That’s the moment when we want to be at 100 per cent.

“It’s roundabout three weeks until then, that’s good. We want to use that and we will. It’s our pre-season; how I said, we don’t expect a long break in between the seasons, so this is a very important period for us.

“We never had nine weeks without football training in our lives – since we played football, pretty much. That’s all different but interesting as well.

“We enjoy the situation, that’s really all good. And it makes all the difference for us, to be honest, to come together and have this hour or two here together. You get this contact, feedback as well on the pitch directly, not via a computer or a screen. It’s a massive, massive lift.”

While the week in which the match takes place is a vital piece of the jigsaw, so is the time and location, with the former set to be open to four different time slots over each weekend day.

“Now we know, from a training point of view, what we have to do when and when we have to be at 100 per cent in the best way, how we can train in different intensities. That was very important,” he added.

“Now, of course, it’s more and more interesting when we play where, the times are really important because we will see how we can organise the travel stuff. So, the situation keeps us busy, that’s absolutely OK.”