Jordan Henderson insists hard-work is the secret for Liverpool’s success as he looked ahead to the start of the 2019/20 season.
The Reds returned to Merseyside this week following a pre-season training camp in Austria. Having faced VfB Stuttgart and RB Salzburg in friendlies, Liverpool take on Arsenal in the Community Shield on Saturday.
With a two-week gap between then and their Premier League opener against Leeds United on 12 September, Jurgen Klopp’s side will be hard at work to prepare themselves for the defence of their Premier League title.
Henderson, who is recovering from a knee injury sustained at the backend of last season, will be hoping to be back in full training during that time.
Asked what Liverpool must do to replicate their achievements from the last campaign, the skipper laid out his aims, insisting the intensity of Liverpool’s training is a must for success.
“To go again, to improve, to be better. To keep that desire, that hunger and that competitiveness as we’ve shown over the last few years,” Henderson said.
“Just to keep going and win as many trophies as we can because we’ve proven that over the last few years we’re a top, top team.
“But that’s all down to the hard work and dedication that’s been over the whole season or the whole two, three, four years – however many years you want to go back – every single day in training was top-level, 100 per cent.
“No matter whether you were playing, maybe playing every game or you hadn’t played that much, training has always had a high level and we’ve got to keep that going forward.
“If we do that, we’ll always have an opportunity to be more successful in the future.”
Henderson also insisted the squad “haven’t spoken” about their title triumph since their return. He sums up their mindset as: “New season, new start and a lot more things we want to go on and achieve.”
He continued: “You’ve got to look at the players in the squad and the manager as well, it’s always about looking forward and wanting more and improving.
“I think that’s just natural to us now. We’ve always looked at the next game as we always see it as the biggest one and that 90 minutes we give everything to win.
“Pre-season is no different, you know you’ve got to train so hard to be ready for the first game of the season, which for us comes against Arsenal in the Community Shield – so a little bit earlier than everybody else.
“We’ve got to be right at it come that first game and we’ve got another chance to win silverware.
“After that, the Premier League starts pretty quick after that as well, so you need to be ready, as you do in every season. As I say, by the looks of it, we are.”
