Recruitment will be a big part of that as well – has that been part of those conversations with Richard?
Yeah, and it’s also been part of spending my time in the last few weeks. If you bring in Fabian, who I didn’t know before, you have conversations, meetings with him – together with Richard – to bring the best possible person in we could find, and I think in the situation of Fabian we managed to do that. He’s regarded as one of the most interesting goalkeeper coaches there is at the moment and in the meetings we had I felt this as well. [There are] still one or two positions to fill in and we are talking about this and having meetings about this as well.
It’s a squad that finished on 82 points. You mentioned before that it’s been left in a good place, so you must feel that it’s in a good place to go again and go again strong…
Yeah, definitely. I think 82 points is a result of [the] playing style. Always the points you get is always a result of the way you play. I’ve seen many games already, I’ve seen many training sessions as well. Of course the fans can see the games, so they know we have some very good players. But I’ve also seen a lot of training sessions already and I think this is where you bring the culture, and they are always working hard – like the fans see during the game.
[A] real good team, real good players, managed to be on top for a very long time, but I think in the end we would all love to see Liverpool a bit higher than third place and this is the challenge we are facing now – to build on from what we have. I have all the confidence in this because of the players, that we can add a few things where we hopefully can get a bit more points than 82, which is necessary with the likes of Arsenal and City, to end up hopefully a bit higher than we did this season.
It’s fascinating to hear you talk not just about the fact that you watched so many of the games but you would even go back and watch training sessions. You dug quite deep into the history of what last season looked like behind the scenes as well…
There are two things [why] to do this. Of course to get to know more about the players because mostly you see them during the games. And you want to know also what the culture is, how they train and what they are used to. I think it’s always interesting if you are the successor of Jürgen Klopp and also Pepijn Lijnders, who does quite a bit of work on the training pitch, to see what their ideas were on the training pitch. I said this, we all try to steal a bit from each other – mostly this is done by looking at the games but if you can see the way they train, that can only help you. Let one thing be clear: the players are not going to get all the same exercises again – we will implement our own things. But it’s interesting to see what they did also during the week.
What has this period been like for you as the boss, in terms of how you speak to players? Do you leave them to their international duties at the moment or have you reached out to a few of them to find out how they are?
I’ve reached out to a few of them – all of them after Jürgen left, because I thought that was really important to be fair to Jürgen and be fair to the players. Because they had to end the season and I don’t think I would be really happy if my successor would have called players before I left the club. Then I think it’s normal to start with the captain, which is Virgil [van Dijk], which is an easy one for me because we could speak Dutch!
And from there on I called a few others, but not many of them because most of them are in preparation, or at this moment playing, at the Euros, and some others are in preparation at the Copa America. So I think the best way is to keep a certain distance but also be interested in them as well. And hoping that most of them – especially the Dutch! – will still be as long as possible away so they will reach the final. Then afterwards I will get to meet them and I think that’s a better way of getting to know each other than by phone or Zoom meetings.
Fixtures for the new season are fresh from being released, it’s eight weeks until it all gets under way. That will go very quickly, so what are your priorities in the next eight weeks?
In pre-season it’s all about getting players fit and getting your game idea, your game model, into the players. We have quite a lot of training time with a few of them; and it depends how far players will go into the tournaments they are playing, how much time we have to work with these players. But like you already mentioned, the playing style will not be completely different. But it would be strange if we would do exactly similar things, because although I’m the replacement of Jürgen Klopp, I’m not exactly similar to him.
So we’ll try with the players who come in at the beginning, which is quite a lot of them already, to implement our idea of football as soon as we can. And when the rest come in a bit later, hopefully the ones who are there already can help us as a coaching staff so that they know what is being expected. Probably it will go as fast as possible because we have to be ready for the first game with Ipswich away.
Before that comes the USA tour. You’ll lead your team in the dugout for the first time in Pittsburgh in July. You must be excited for that?
Yeah, I think it’s always special to have games in the United States. From what I’ve been told, the stadiums are quite full or completely full. That’s a special way of starting your career at Liverpool. But especially if you go to a new club, the first time is always special. First time arriving here for the first training session, the first time leading a session, and the first time leading a game will be special. But most of course I’m looking forward to is leading a game at Anfield. But we have to wait a while before that happens.
We spoke a little bit about Feyenoord at the start. You must be in a wonderful place mentally now to have left them amongst Europe’s elite again. It’s always probably quite sad to leave a club that has such a big part in your life, though?
Yeah, I think it was during the interview I said that last season I had the chance to go to the Premier League as well; I decided to stay because I felt that things weren’t done yet. When I started there, the club was in quite a difficult place, didn’t have a lot of money, ended up fifth I think. And we could change that around. Now, with two successive seasons of Champions League, winning the title once, winning the cup once, and the value the squad has now is completely different to three years ago – I think it’s fair to say I left Feyenoord in a good place. I have all the belief that the new head coach over there will do a great job there as well, because he’s inheriting a good culture and a very good team as well.
They sing You’ll Never Walk Alone, like Liverpool do…
I’ve already said, there’s a few similarities between Feyenoord and Liverpool. Both are cities alongside the river, people work on the docks, it’s a hard working class, fans that appreciate seeing the team. I think these clubs like Feyenoord and Liverpool, from what I saw of it, it just means a bit more for the fans, it just means a bit more if the team does well than at some other places around the world. This is what I felt at Feyenoord and I’m expecting to feel the same here at Anfield as well.
We’re looking forward to it, too. A good way to finish is a message from you to the fans…
You surprised me a bit on this one! There is a change but the change hopefully isn’t that big, because we still have the same players, we still have the same fans – and if the both of them are going to do the same job, that will make my life a lot more easy! I’m expecting them to show up again in the upcoming season, and the same for the players. I will do everything within my interest and power to lead the team in the best possible way.