Klopp's thoughts
All round it was a brilliant performance of the boys, in both halves we played really good football against a good, physically strong side. The boys let the ball do the work pretty much, the ball was constantly busy rolling so the game was fluent. I liked it a lot; all the individual performances were good, tactical-wise altogether good, pressing good, counter-pressing. I saw all the things. [We were] only one week together and the kids came up to do so. I liked the game.
We brought them in already, only you don’t realise it. Rhian Brewster; Oxlade-Chamberlain didn’t play last year; all the young boys today. They are all new players for us, that’s all good. The transfer market is open until August 8. The whole of Europe had the idea to close the transfer window early and the only country that did it was then England, so we close it now three weeks before all the others. We will see what we do but I don’t think it will be the biggest transfer window of all time.
They should be happy about that and should get confidence from that but it’s not that we are running around like Champions League winners 24 hours a day. We won it five weeks ago and I had a wonderful summer, the best summer I ever had because people didn’t say when they wanted a picture with me, ‘I’m so sorry for you’, which they usually did in the last five years. It was much better and for the players it was the same. But now we are here. Yes, we made the next step. It looked tonight like they were all really confident, I liked the game a lot. Maybe it has a little bit to do with winning the Champions League but during the season we have to go for winning something new and cannot always look back.
It’s] nothing to do with that. We want to play the best season we can play, like we wanted to do last year, but we have no idea what that means for what happens to all the other teams – Man United, Chelsea, Tottenham – so it will be a new season and we have to be ready for that. For us, I am really happy about the game tonight but it is a difficult pre-season for us. Sadio Mane is in the semi-finals [of the Africa Cup of Nations], so that means he has two more games for sure and will come [back] late. The Brazilians have finally finished their 30-month season, exactly like Mo, and they will come but we will not have a pre-season together, we will only have a week before we start with the games. Tonight it looked like we can find some solutions. Last season is a good sign for us, it showed us what we can achieve, but we have to be as good as last year and, in the best case, be better. We will see what the outcome will be.
It depends. I open the door but the boys have to go through still. He is a wonderful player as well, but because of FIFA rules he is not available in the moment, but we have other good players. He thought his future should be here and I thought the same, so now he is here and now let’s work together. He is 17 years old and when you see him you forget that constantly, but he is 17 and so there is a lot to learn. The good thing is he has the most time to do so, so everything will be fine.
On whether he wants to ‘play down’ Brewster’s performance…
Why should I play down? I only don’t want to talk after a game like that [about] the guy who scored two goals, like it always is in football, ‘Oh, he is so good, he scored two!’ I saw a really good game and Rhian is a fantastic player, that is the only thing I want to talk about. We can talk about Rhian, no problem, I don’t want to play him down or it down.
100 per cent, but again it depends on him as well. Divock Origi stays, obviously, which is good news; Bobby Firmino is still there; Rhian Brewster is a top striker, a top talent, and I am really happy. I told him already, he has an important role this year – but how important? Again, it depends on him and we will see. He has to play different positions as well because the centre is OK, wing I think is possible, and then we will see how we can line up. There will be opportunities for him, I am really sure.
