Klopp on Liverpool squad: I still kick their backsides in training

Jurgen Klopp says he has not gone easy on his players in recent weeks despite their impressive run to the Champions League final.

The Reds overturned a 3-0 deficit to beat Barcelona and reach Saturday’s final against Tottenham, while simultaneously pushing Manchester City all the way in the Premier League.

Klopp, however, says he still has to “kick backsides” in training.

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“I couldn’t be prouder of the boys, but we are not in the moment to feel it,” Klopp told LiverpoolFC.com.

“I have to kick their backsides in training, I have to push them, I have to keep them awake.

“I’m proud – very proud – but it’s not a moment to feel it; it’s a moment to really feel each muscle and it’s important we really say, ‘OK, come on, we need everything to do it because we want it’.”

The manager continued: “For me, the key moment in that [Barcelona] game was kick-off: they passed the ball back and we jumped on them.

“I described it to the boys as (being) like lions who had not been fed for eight weeks!

“I was like ‘Wow! OK, that’s a good start. That’s how it can work’. And then we scored and then it was an open game, I would say.”

He added: “Quite a lot of times, I was really touched by what the boys did, scoring the goals we scored, fighting the fights we fought and all that stuff.

“It was special and of course you can’t always do it like this. We have a lot of potential in the team and the boys mixed it up with an attitude I never saw before – and that’s just outstanding.

“And that’s what I meant when I said they are ‘mentality monsters’.

“We see our development, we know what we do, we improve so much it’s unbelievable.

“If there was a prize for the biggest development in the last 12 months then it’s going to the Reds, that’s how it is.

“The boys did a really amazing job, but we get that it’s about winning competitions, so for us we want to win the competition and if not then be as close as possible.

“That’s pretty much, apart from winning, the best thing that can happen – be as close as possible because that makes things rather reachable than unreachable – that’s very important.”

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Source: anfieldhq.com