Georginio Wijnaldum sat down with Liverpoolfc.com at the team hotel in California this week to discuss his first week as a Red following his transfer from Newcastle United. Read on for part one of our exclusive interview now...

Gini on his first week as a Liverpool player…

It’s been good. First of all, I am really happy to be a Liverpool player. I’ve already said it – it’s a great club with a great history. A lot of players want to play for Liverpool and I am blessed that I am able to. I’m happy and the days have been great so far. The people and the players have helped me – they’ve all been nice to me and helped me to settle in.

On the settling in process…

I didn’t know any of the lads before I came here, so at first I thought it might be difficult when you know no-one, but everyone has been really good. They’ve all spoken with me and have tried to help me when I’ve needed something. That makes it easier for me to settle in here.

On who he’s gotten to know best so far…

I try to speak with everybody to get to know people better. Divock can also speak Dutch, so it’s easier for me to communicate with him. I’ve been speaking a lot with him and also Christian Benteke and Sadio Mane.

On the intensity of the training sessions…

It’s tough but in pre-season, every training session is tough. You have to create a base for the season to come, so training is always hard. You will be tired after the training sessions, but that’s how pre-season works. It’s more than only hard work, it’s also technical and shape work which we are working on right now.

On Jürgen Klopp…

Every trainer has his own training style, so Jürgen Klopp has his own style. It’s quite similar to some of the training I used to do in Holland because you play a lot of football. He will come and speak with me to ask me how I feel. He’s said if I need something, I can ask him. I feel at ease. He speaks to everyone, tries to help everyone and make everything clear. In training, if he sees that I have to do something different, he will stop and tell me ‘you have to do it like this…you need to be aware of this and that…’. In those situations, he’s also helping me.

On what he does to relax during downtime during the tour…

[Laughs] I lay down on my bed in my room! I’ll go on the internet and stay in contact with people from Holland, which is sometimes difficult because of the time difference. But it’s fine, I can call or FaceTime them. I am trying not to sleep in the afternoon because it’d be difficult to sleep in the evening, so I am usually on the phone, on the internet or watching a movie on the television. I saw the Matrix Reloaded the other day – I’d already seen the movie, but sometimes it’s always good to watch old movies.

Stay tuned to Liverpoolfc.com for the second part of our exclusive interview with Wijnaldum.