“Obviously I know (Sadio) Mane and (Gini) Wijnaldum but it’s not a case for me of being excited by any of the individual signings for Liverpool, it’s a case of being happy with what Jurgen Klopp is doing”, Barnes told the Liverpool Echo.
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“It’s a lot more intense, probably the most intense I’ve ever experienced at any club”, he said. The Spaniard has been quick to impose the strict discipline which served him well at Barcelona and Bayern Munich as he seeks to make sure his players are fit for the new season.
However, the focus given to other competitions at times seemed to have a detrimental effect on their League placement, as a disappointing campaign finish featured two cup final losses and missing out on European qualification with an eighth place spot in the Premier League table.
Klopp is quite clearly not from the school where a transfer “war chest” would burn a hole in his pocket, whether the owners have made one available to him or not, but the careful approach is hardly what fans expected this summer.
Jurgen Klopp insists the Liverpool squad is now his and not the team he inherited from Brendan Rodgers – admitting he can have no excuses for failure this season.
“And if you have seen them in training, there is a special quality that we did not have past year”. If you do that, you know their good, their bad and you wonder whether you will do it again. “A year ago, Jose Mourinho gave his Chelsea players too much slack and they returned unfit”. “That isn’t how we work”.
McAllister, 51, played nine years for Scotland and had a 19-year professional career in England.
Money, of course, doesn’t always buy success and Klopp points to one other problem with spending large sums of money on individual players: “If you bring one player in for £100million or whatever, and he gets injured, then it all goes through the chimney”.
“We want to be playing in Europe and I don’t think it plays in our favour us not having as many games as the opposition. We built this team to be successful”.
“I just believe it is important to let your feet do the talking and that is what I will be looking to do”.
Said the Chelsea manager Antonio Conte: “I think that in this period, the fatigue sometimes can bring a (player) to go too late”.
Klopp said Klavan had escaped unscathed from the challenge but revealed that fellow recruit Marko Grujic was in hospital after receiving a knock to the head in the first half.
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Fabregas will now be suspended for Chelsea’s friendly clash against Champions League winners Real Madrid tomorrow Conte was not ready to criticise the Spaniard. “But it’s not that serious”.
