Liverpool supporters have often wondered what a preseason tour and training are like under Jürgen Klopp. Well, former Red Lucas Leiva will give fans a peak behind the curtain as he is one of six former Liverpool players that will travel with the club on their upcoming Asain Tour.
Leiva is a midfielder that played with Liverpool from 2007-2017 before retiring from competitive football in March of 2023. Leiva was part of Klopp's first preseason training program as the Reds' boss in 2016.
"It's very intense," he admitted in an interview with Liverpool's official website. “I think I've done 18 or 19 pre-seasons in my career, I've just retired so maybe in two years' time I will miss that, but at the moment I will be glad to be outside and watching them running.”
Leiva adds that Klopp's intensity level is different than any other manager he has ever played for.
“As we know, Jürgen's teams play with intensity that is different to another manager,” he said. “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." According to Leiva, Klopp stresses tactics and fitness in each training session.
“Every session you can work tactically," Leiva. "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."
Training is more than getting fit or working on tactics, though. An equally important part is bonding with teammates. One of those bonding traditions is having all the new players in the club 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,” Leiva recalled.
Above all, however, Leiva remembers the relationships he built with his teammates, the staff and supporters during his time at Anfield.
"It's incredible. This club is special and the relationship that the club creates with fans is unique. That's why it's important the club makes these trips because fans deserve to be closer and feel the team is showing appreciation."
LFC Globe will have up-to-date information on the Asian Tour and the other pre-season fixtures as details are released.