Jurgen Klopp is ready to harness the togetherness he witnessed at Liverpool’s initiation night for “something big,” after some “unbelievably good performances” from players and staff.
The Reds are nearing the end of their time in Austria with just one friendly remaining, against Salzburg, before returning to England for two games in two days.
And while the focus has primarily been on preparations for the new season on the pitch, there has been plenty of time off it to forge new bonds and strengthen the team spirit.
Monday night’s annual initiations were one such example and we’ve already seen brilliant footage of one staff remember stealing the show with his rendition of Vanilla Ice’s ‘Ice Ice Baby’.
But he was not alone, with various staff members also getting on the microphone alongside the new players in the group, and it left Klopp wishing “each second” was on video.
“So, I’m not a social media guy, obviously, for five million right reasons how I see it,” Klopp reflected on the night with the club’s official website.
“But that was a night each second should have been on a video, and we should’ve thrown it into the world and it would have been, ‘What?! How is that possible?’ It was completely spontaneous and not planned.
“We had this wonderful location up on the hill. Absolutely brilliant.
“So, this night is then made, I think we all set it up for embarrassment that somebody goes up there and has to go through hell with the mic in your hand and you have to sing a song you cannot sing, you cannot whatever, you don’t know the song, all these kind of things.
“But the atmosphere was great, with all the fun we had [it was] still respectful. There was some unbelievably good performances, so many unbelievable performances that we really enjoyed it and the time was flying.
“Nobody had a [look at a] watch, or whatever, it was just great. I had a big meeting last night and I told the boys [that] I never saw something like this. It’s the truth.
“This is the basis we have to use. We as a group, the way we interact really with each other is something special, and we have to make sure we can use that for something big.”
The likes of Fabio Carvalho, Darwin Nunez and Calvin Ramsay will all have been asked to perform, as too Luis Diaz following his January arrival.
It was the youngsters who Klopp sought to acknowledge, though, for their supreme show of confidence in an environment that you feel would create plenty of nerves.
“You have to show some bravery to get there, everybody was nervous when they had to go there, that’s normal. But the young kids, the self-confidence they have at that young age, I think that’s a really good sign for the team as well,” Klopp said.
“How the team let these boys grow next to them. Seventeen years old, Isaac [Mabaya], a little mic check! I couldn’t deal with that. So, really cool, cool moments the whole night.”
If only we had it all on camera, as Klopp said!
