Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has insisted that no player of the club would be punished if they fail to attend training amid the coronavirus pandemic. He also insisted that the players have the choice to decide whether it is safe for them to resume training with the club or not.
Most Premier League clubs including Liverpool have resumed training in small groups under stringent guidelines to help prevent the spread of the deadly coronavirus. Despite the mass coronavirus test conducted on all the players in the league, some players are still sceptical about resuming training amid the raging pandemic.
Unlike Chelsea football club which started training on Tuesday evening, Liverpool started their group training on Wednesday. Before the club commenced their first training session in two months, Jurgen Klopp told Sky Sports that he has given the players the power to exercise their free will.
“It is the players’ choice and that is clear,” Klopp said. “I said before the session, ‘You are here on free will. Usually, you sign a contract and you have to be in when I tell you, but in this case, if you don’t feel safe, you don’t have to be here’.
“There are no restrictions, no punishment, nothing. It’s their own decision and we respect that 100 per cent.
“The boys are all here, the first group of 10 players, then the next session will start, and another 10 players will be in, and then another five in the afternoon. We will see if they show up but so far, we know they will because they would have called us.
“The boys are fine. We would never put anybody in danger to do what we want to do. Yes, we love football, yes, it’s our job, but it’s not more important than our lives or the lives of other people.”
Jurgen Klopp Got his boys
Fortunately for Jurgen Klopp, when the training in groups started for the club on Wednesday, he had all his players intact for it. He told Sky Sport that they all have to dress in their training kits while driving down to Melwood, Liverpool‘s training camp.
“Then coming to Melwood and seeing all the boys was nice”, he said. “Before the session, we had to give an introduction to make sure everything went in line. It was a short meeting and then a little bit more about the targets and then we started training. That was the best part for a while, really good.”
Liverpool is the favourite to win the Premier League title this season. Before the season was halted due to the pandemic, the club was already topping the league table with 82 points, 25 points more than the second-placed Manchester City.
Jurgen Klopp and his team will hope to continue with the form they started the season with and win most of their remaining 9 games in order to be crowned champions of the Premier League for the first time in 30 years.
