Jurgen Klopp has given the responsibility over to his players for their summer holidays – many of which will have already started.
There are ever-changing rules and guidelines about travel to certain countries – and it’s basically impossible to predict exactly where we’ll be allowed to go from England – and whether the government will enforce a quarantine upon the return.
Naturally, this could affect Liverpool’s pre-season, if certain members of the squad are forced to self-isolate when Klopp wants them at Melwood – but he’s trying hard not to enforce anything too strict right now.
“We had this talk,” the Liverpool manager told the Guardian. “It is a conversation without a solution to be honest. The boys can go on holiday, obviously, and we know from everybody where they will go, and it’s all OK – these countries are all completely fine. But the situation can change, constantly, so now this is the responsibility of the boys. They must make sure they know when they have to leave the specific country. They have to follow the news and they have to react. It is not our job to say: ‘Maybe Spain closes the border again,’ or whatever. The boys are responsible for that, and they know that as well.
“We will do as much as we can to help but they need to be aware of the situation. None of us can go on holiday and do the things that maybe you could do in the past. We all have to still be disciplined, but I will say the boys were exceptional. Not only our players, but all the players in the Premier League. Not one single new case after the season restarted – that shows they are good boys, all of them, and I hope it stays like this and we will come back and train again.”
The players are due back for pre-season in two weeks, which seems incredibly short – but is probably a sufficient break given the length of time they had off during April and May.
And besides, we’ll be in a much better position ahead of next season than Manchester City and the other clubs in Europe – who will basically not get a pre-season at all.
We hope our group enjoys their break, stay fit and are ready to hit the ground running in 2020/21 – so we can turn our already brilliant success into a legacy!