Jurgen Klopp believes fierce competition for places will help ensure that Liverpool take “the next step” this season.

The Reds boss says it's inevitable that some players will be fuming when he picks his line up for the Premier League opener at Watford next Saturday.

But Klopp says they must channel that frustration correctly because having greater squad depth is going to be so crucial as Liverpool look to maintain a challenge both domestically and in Europe this term.

The Reds, who will discover their opponents in the Champions League play-off round on Friday, returned to Merseyside on Thursday afternoon after an eight-day training camp in Bavaria.

Klopp is confident they are bang on course to be ready for the big kick-off.

He hasn't lost anyone he wanted to keep this summer and is adamant it will stay that way, regardless of Barcelona's continued pursuit of Philippe Coutinho.

James Pearce on the defeat in the Audi Cup final

The manager is excited by the development of his current crop and the injection of quality provided by his three summer signings.

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“Everybody thought ‘he’s going, he’s going, he’s going’ but so far nobody is going,” Klopp said.

“If we stay together like this there will be a few hard decisions because they can’t start all together. Then we have to see how this works.

“Be angry at me, no problem, stay confident, that is important, then three days (later) there is another game so let's be there again. There are a lot of challenges.

(Image: (Photo by Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images))

“The plan is that they all make the next step. Of course we want to build on the base of last year.

“I said we always want to develop this team and there are two things to do – signings and training so we did both.

“The signings are nice, either they play or they push another player. Now it’s more difficult to play all the time.”

“You know and I know there is nothing like Liverpool'

Klopp has bolstered his ranks with deals for Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson and Dominic Solanke for a combined total of around £47million, although that figure will be swelled when a tribunal decides on the fee for Solanke.

Liverpool's outlay would have been significantly greater had RB Leipzig not rebuffed their attempts to buy Naby Keita. The Reds remain ready to pounce if Southampton back down and agree to sell £60million rated centre-back Virgil van Dijk.

Klopp made a habit of turning young players with potential into top-class performers at Borussia Dortmund and there are promising signs of him repeating the trick on Merseyside.

“I would love that history always happens like this but this club should not be compared to anything,” he added.

Never before seen colour footage of LFC v Inter in 1965

“You know and I know there is nothing like Liverpool. We know what we see in the players and we know what we have to do.

“We need to make sure it works much more often than it doesn’t work.

“We need to be independent of one or two players. We still have to have a style, a way of playing and we need to be able to play completely differently if needed.

"So far the pre-season has been pretty good. Phil has so far been outstanding and a few others."

At Dortmund, Klopp had to endure top talent like Nuri Sahin, Mario Gotze and Robert Lewandowski being cherry-picked by rival clubs, but Liverpool are in a stronger position to resist the advances of potential suitors.

“When we became (Bundesliga) champions, we lost Nuri Sahin. It’s not that the world ends afterwards,” Klopp said.

“Everyone thought ‘oh my god’. We got (Ilkay) Gundogan. Did we know he was as good as Nuri? No. We hoped it and it worked out.

“That’s how things happen. I can understand your interest in writing about this but I really don’t want to talk about things like this. That’s no message, that’s how it is.”

Liverpool will fly to Dublin on Saturday for their final friendly of the summer against Athletic Bilbao.

Klopp believes important lessons were learned from their time in Germany which saw them sweep aside Hertha Berlin and Bayern Munich before a much changed line up lost on penalties to Atletico Madrid in the final of the Audi Cup.

(Image: (Photo by Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images))

He refused to get carried away with the 3-0 victory over Bayern because he wasn't happy with how his side allowed the hosts to dominate possession in the first half.

"When we are passive I feel we always get a punishment," Klopp added.

"The best way to defend is to have the ball. We couldn’t play the way I wanted to play but in the second half we did. We know what we have to work on. We know we can be better."