Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp has revealed his ‘unbelievable’ pining for football to return following an almost three-month hiatus due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The Reds’ last game saw them knocked out of the Champions League by Atletico Madrid on 11 March, before the Premier League was suspended just two days later.
With Klopp’s team just two wins away from securing their maiden Premier League crown, the Liverpool boss, unsurprisingly, has now conceded that he can’t wait for football to return, reassuring Reds’ fans that his team will be ready for the league’s resumption.
“I have missed it so much it’s unbelievable,” Klopp told the BBC. “I know it’s not the most important thing in life but it is my passion. I hope the people are looking forward to it because we are.
“When we start, we will have had four weeks – three weeks of contact training together – and that should be enough, it has to be enough.”
Since returning to contact training on May 28, Klopp’s side have been pictured training at Anfield rather than their usual Melwood training complex. The German tactician explained that he is looking to familiarise his team with the surroundings of an empty Anfield, ahead of their home fixtures which will be played behind closed doors, and he appeared unconcerned about the FA ruling.
“We will not have the help from the crowd but no team will have that so where is the advantage?” he added.
“Whoever we play it is the same situation which is why I’m not too worried about it. We have tried to simulate the situation by training in the stadium and getting used to it.
“If you look at Germany, they have not had a lot of home wins. If the alternative is not to play at all, then I will play wherever you want. I don’t care.”
Despite the remainder of Liverpool’s Premier League campaign looking a formality, Klopp also insisted his team were fully focused on the task in hand and suggested that he refuses to see the idea of winning the title in an empty stadium as an anti-climatic end to the campaign.
"It's nice to think about it but we are not champions yet and we know that. We know we are close but close is not there. There are 27 points left for us and we will try everything to take them all.
"If we become champions, whatever celebrations are possible we will do as a team internally and with all our supporters in the moment we are allowed to do so again. I can promise that if it happens, there will be a parade as well. Whenever. Who cares! We only need one day when everybody is able to come and then we will do that."
Liverpool's first fixture back following the break is due to be a tantalising clash with Merseyside rivals Everton.
Source : 90min