What’s a Jürgen Klopp pre-season really like? Lucas Leiva reveals all

Lucas Leiva is recalling his experience of Jürgen Klopp’s first pre-season as Liverpool manager back in 2016. 

“It’s very intense,” he adds in this chat with Liverpoolfc.com. 

This year, however, Lucas – much to his relief – will be a keen observer of the Reds’ preparations for the campaign ahead. 

Indeed, the Brazilian will spend part of his first summer since retirement as one of six legends on the club’s pre-season trip to Singapore, meeting supporters and taking part in events. 

• Tickets for Liverpool’s games versus Leicester City and Bayern Munich in Singapore are available now at www.ticketek.com.sg

“I think I’ve done 18, 19 pre-seasons in my career, I’ve just retired so maybe in two years’ time I will miss that,” the 36-year-old says. “But at the moment I will be glad to be outside and watching them running.

“As we know, Jürgen’s teams play with intensity that is different to another manager. But the first pre-season was really tough. Lots of running. Especially in the first 10 days, two weeks, I think it’s the most difficult. 

“Jürgen likes to work as after the pre-season you don’t have too much time to train, so it’s a really important part of the season.”

It will be a different pre-season for pretty much the entire squad this time around, by virtue of the fact James Milner won’t be part of it. 

Milner, who is joining Brighton & Hove Albion, earned an almost legendary reputation for his repeated excelling in the annual lactate test. 

“Millie is not there anymore, so let’s see who will be the top one now!” Lucas laughs. “Millie was almost impossible to beat.

“Competitiveness is inside every single player, so there will be plenty of that during the pre-season, I’m sure – small-sided games and also in the running.”

In every year of his stewardship of Liverpool, Klopp has stressed the importance of the team’s work in the month of July. 

Fitness is banked for the toils ahead in multiple competitions, with tactical ideas dropped in as the coaching staff strain for every improvement and development possible. 

“Every session you can work tactically,” Lucas remembers. “Every session you can put in a little of the way you want to play, especially for the new players. 

“Depending on what they do, they always try to put something in so that slowly they start to understand the way Jürgen wants to play.”

Equally crucial during pre-season is the time the squad spends together off the training pitches. 

Strong relationships – needed to get through the tests a season may bring – can be forged in the hours spent travelling or in the hotel, an environment conducive to building camaraderie. 

The tradition of initiation songs for new arrivals is an easy ice-breaker, too, although Lucas was spared that potential embarrassment after he joined from Gremio in 2007.

He recalls: “It wasn’t the case in that moment. I remember when I first arrived, I think we were going to Hong Kong, so I met the squad in London and I didn’t have to sing. 

“I think that it’s the case now that when a new player comes in, you have to sing. Probably the South American guys introduced that, I’m sure of that, because it’s very common here in Brazil or in South America when a new player comes in that they sing or they have to make a speech or something like this. 

“It’s really important. I think that’s why they travel as well – to spend as much time as they can together and to [get] to know the new players because if they settle in quickly I think it will be a benefit for everyone. 

“They start to understand the identity of the club, the other players, the [way] teammates want to play, strengths, weaknesses.”

The pre-season tours also serve as a very real reminder of Liverpool’s global reach.

As seen in open training sessions and friendlies year after year, the passion of Anfield can truly extend to all corners of the world.

“It’s incredible. This club is special and the relationship that the club creates with fans is unique,” Lucas finishes. “That’s why it’s important the club makes these trips because fans deserve to be closer and feel the team is showing appreciation.”