Liverpool could get a massive double boost after Jurgen Klopp makes an atypical switch

Blood Red: Liverpool’s long-term planning for next season has now given them something to look for in the final stages of this season

At one point during the international break in March, it looked like Jurgen Klopp and his team had drawn the line for the season.

While most of his players were away with their respective national teams, Klopp balked at the occasion of a full week break, which he usually takes when things are going well, and instead set out to chart a path to the pinnacle of English football.

When asked if he has used the break to make any notable progress on next season’s plans in terms of recruitment, Klopp replied; “It’s the only thing we do during the international break other than a few days off. The player side was positive I would say. But those were discussions, not decisions – but we’re busy.”

At the time, the Reds were sixth in the Premier League and had just beaten a Bournemouth side bottom of the table 1-0 in their last game. A place in the top four seemed like a pipe dream and the rhetoric at the AXA Center seemed to revolve around a club whose eyes had now been widened on what could be achieved next season.

“The future has already started, let me put it this way,” Klopp said last month, but also admitted: “I’m already thinking about next season.” While the manager has often put on a relaxed figure at his Friday press conferences – staying broadly balanced regardless of recent good, bad or mediocre form – the signs point to someone determined to make sure he doesn’t. there is no repeat of the 23/24 campaign.

“We tried to give ourselves a chance with a fresh start and many different football themes and now we’ve had a sort of fresh start,” Klopp said on Friday. “We had a week or eight or nine days to train and we wanted to use that time to start the new season. We didn’t know where that was taking us, but it was a breath of fresh air for us.

That Klopp is set to make a significant improvement next season is a prospect that should excite Liverpool fans as they face a big summer of rebuilding a squad that will make a handful of big names. The latest call to waive a bidding war for Jude Bellingham – a player who would take the lion’s share of the Reds’ transfer this summer – was made with a view to spreading the money across a handful of other midfield options and where or how you stand on that particular angle at least suggests that Klopp is planning to significantly restructure the areas that cost him this season.

For example, the decision to swap the two legs of the pre-season schedule is indicative of a manager who wants to get his team back on track faster than last summer, where operational mistakes have since been admitted. .

“I wouldn’t go to Asia in the first week [of pre-season],” Klopp said in January. “Not because Asia isn’t great, but I wouldn’t go [even] into week three. But it’s really not in our hands. Is this the reason [for our struggles]? I don’t think so, but it would have been better to do otherwise. We learn from these things.

Rather than sending its players to the Far East for a more commercial excursion before establishing actual baseline fitness levels at a training camp in Europe later this summer – a schedule that has contributed to injuries muscle injuries suffered by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Diogo Jota-Klopp is said to be adamant that these problems are much less likely if the long-distance trips are undertaken this time after a summer camp in Germany.

The decision to bring forward Thiago Alcantara’s surgery to prepare him for action at the start of the pre-season campaign is another indication that Liverpool’s thought process is about the long-term benefits that could come from a another bid for the title next season. Premier League.

Another reason would be the recent tactical change which has seen Trent Alexander-Arnold become a de facto central midfielder whenever in possession, having been the creative linchpin at right-back for years. The fact that the plan was only introduced when the first four members’ hopes seemed to have dwindled suggests that it was or is being considered in less pressured environments where points don’t necessarily matter as much as they do. could be normally. It’s an experience that is at least yielding results as the No.66 has become one of the Premier League’s standout players over the past month.

Curiously, while Klopp and his team had more than one eye on how to get ahead in time for the new season, they threw themselves into the mix to achieve something tangible by the end of this season. . Six straight wins and an eight-game unbeaten streak put them in fourth place, just one point behind Manchester United.

The Red Devils still have a game to negotiate, but given the struggles they have faced over the past nine unpredictable months, it’s something in itself fans have been hoping to grasp in recent weeks. And if Liverpool ever fail in the Champions League pursuit, at least they can rest assured that plans for a critical summer and next season as a whole have been in the works for some time.