On the support Liverpool have received in Hong Kong…
Wherever we go in the world, if it was last year in the USA, at Anfield, our away games or we are here in Hong Kong, everywhere we go we feel so much support and love from the fans. That was here today, but it was already two days ago when we trained in the stadium… I don’t think many clubs train in stadiums where 25,000 people are watching a training session. It tells you something about the club, but also about our fans. We are really happy to be here because it is for the new players also nice to see what this club means in the world, not only at Anfield but in the world. I asked Virgil two days ago, ‘Was this the first time you trained [in front of] 25,000?’ and he replied and said in Singapore he’d also trained in front of a lot of people. This is what this club means all over the world and we are happy to be part of that.
On his opinion of Hong Kong overall…
My view has mainly been the training pitch and my hotel room, and the hotel where we eat, but we’ve been welcomed really well. We have a great hotel, we have good training facilities. Of course, the weather is a little bit warmer than we’re used to in Liverpool, but you can stay in Europe and it can be sometimes really warm as well. I think there have only been positives what we’ve experienced until now, apart maybe from the result today. For the rest we could work really good. Most players have stayed fit and we’ve had a lot of help and support from the people of Hong Kong.
On how it felt hearing fans singing his name at the stadium…
Weird in general if they sing for you, especially if you are a manager. If you are a player you maybe get used to that a little bit more – if you perform well, by the way! Most managers, when they sing for them it has something to do with a few bad results and then people start to sing for you. It is nice what Jürgen [Klopp] did back then a year ago and it’s nice to hear it, but my main focus is on the game. I prefer to enjoy what I see in front of me instead of what I hear behind me, but sometimes these things can both happen and that’s the ideal world.
On Liverpool’s work in the transfer window…
I think what I’ve also said is I’m really happy with the squad we had. That’s what we also showed by not bringing in new players last season. Now we won the league, but you can see everywhere around us – in the Premier League but also we play in Europe so we want to achieve things there as well – that all of these teams try to strengthen their squads. So, if you do the same as we did last year we will probably not be able to win it again. So, we have to improve – the players that are still here and we’ve tried to bring new energy in but also ‘weapons’, as you called it, and I think the players we’ve brought in have shown already in the few times we have trained together and the games we’ve played. Now let’s wait how Hugo [Ekitike] is going to do that. Really pleased what we did until now, but already really pleased we kept the players that had an extended contract last season.
