It is touch and go whether Liverpool qualify for European competition next season but, either way, Jurgen Klopp wants to ensure the right lessons are learned.
There is plenty for Liverpool to fix and tweak until the end of the season, in the transfer market and into pre-season.
It has been all but a season to write off for the Reds, but the manager is insistent that he and his team learn more than what was the “wrong way” to play.
For Klopp, the “future [has] started already” for his squad with the likes of Stefan Bajcetic, Diogo Jota, Luis Diaz, Cody Gakpo and Darwin Nunez – three of whom have missed a significant number of games due to injury.
But looking to the future does not take away from the fact that “we have to win football games now.”
It is needed if the Reds are to make any travels to the continent next season – Liverpool are currently in eighth place, nine points adrift of top four.
If the club do finish outside of the European places though, Klopp is clear on what he expects.
“If we don’t qualify for any kind of European competition, it would obviously be a massive disappointment,” Klopp insisted.
“But we should make sure that we didn’t waste time in the period now, that we use it already.
“Pre-season this year will be quite long, but it’s [still] pretty short to prepare a long season, so I hope we can take some things from this season which are more useful than just telling us that was the wrong way.”
Liverpool’s pre-season is expected to take them to Europe for a training camp and Singapore for a friendly tournament.
The latter will be a ‘one-stop tour’ after Klopp rued the timing and effect of last summer’s early trip to Asia.
The manager is also known to be eager to see Liverpool act swiftly in the transfer market to ensure new signings are integrated as soon as possible.
Whether they will be preparing for a season with four different competitions remains to be seen, but we can only hope that it is the case.
