On whether the squad knows who the new vice-captain will be and any potential changes to the leadership group…
The group doesn’t know yet. I did talk to the individuals already, so the one that’s going to be vice-captain already knows. Everybody likes to have leaders in the team, and in modern football you don’t see that that much anymore. I have the privilege that I have a few of them, so experienced players that are not only experienced but understand the game and can be a voice inside the group and during the game. So, that’s always very helpful.
It’s difficult to say but we are now at the beginning of August, so there’s a month to go. So many things can happen in football in a month, so let’s wait and see. First, we go back home and then we’re going to play at Anfield next week. Although I liked it a lot over here, the respect of the fans, the way they treated us, how many there were, but I can tell you that Anfield has a better pitch than the last two pitches we’ve played [on]!
On Wataru Endo’s introduction to the game…
The reason why I brought Wataru Endo in just before the rest is that I think he deserved that more than everyone else, I would almost say, for the role he played last season in us winning the league. I know that everybody was talking about Mo Salah, Luis Diaz, Cody Gakpo, Virgil van Dijk – who else do I forget? – all these great players that scored so many goals. But what no-one probably ever saw was how well the players that didn’t play all the time accepted their role – Wata was probably the best example of that.
No matter how many minutes we needed him – one, two, three, four, five, 10, 15 – he was always there for the team, and that is a very important reason for us winning the league last season. He totally deserved to get the credit from the Japanese fans today. If I helped him a little bit by giving him the captain’s armband then that’s nice because he totally deserves this.
On whether he allows himself to reflect on what he’s achieved at Liverpool so far or is just focused on the next challenge…
I’m also focused on that but I’m definitely aware of what we’ve achieved. But I had quite a long holiday, I think it was five or six weeks and because we won the league quite early, I could enjoy it for quite a long time. But I think the moment we started again, that was also the moment – you guys can still enjoy it – but we now need to prepare ourselves for the upcoming season. Therefore, there are no moments to enjoy what we did last season. So, our full focus is now on this season and how we, I need to prepare the players for another tough season.
Because I thought last season was already tough but if you look at what all the Premier League teams are doing, the Premier League is even going to get stronger than last season. We need to be ready for that – that’s where my full focus is on at the moment, over the last few weeks. We are making steps forward but I also didn’t forget that last season I went to Wembley, having to look at Newcastle lifting a trophy, and in two weeks we go there again. So, I hope we show a different face in that final, Community Shield, than we did in the League Cup final.
