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Jurgen Klopp walks over and pulls up a chair.

“Nice holiday, hey?” he grins as the Liverpool boss gazes out across Lake Geneva.

For players and staff, the week-long training camp in France proved to be anything but. The hard yards were put in as the Reds stepped up their preparations for the 2018/19 campaign.

A gruelling pre-season which has taken Liverpool from Chester to Dublin via Tranmere, Bury, Blackburn, North Carolina, New Jersey, Michigan and Evian is nearly complete.

Only Tuesday's final friendly against Torino at Anfield stands between the Reds and next Sunday's Premier League opener against West Ham.

During an engaging half hour in his company Klopp's passion and energy for the challenges ahead shines through.

While rival bosses are stamping their feet and demanding further reinforcements ahead of Thursday's transfer deadline, Klopp is clearly satisfied with his lot.

The German coach has achieved so much already during his first three years at Anfield. Liverpool have reached three major cup finals and secured back-to-back top-four Premier League finishes for the first time in nearly a decade.

The squad he inherited has been transformed and the Reds are once again a major force to be reckoned with on the European stage. But Klopp wants more, much more.

“I'm fine with what we've done, fine that we did it, but it's nothing to be proud of,” he told the ECHO.

“I am a very positive person but even I cannot say that reaching a final is the maximum because it's not the maximum. When we are there, we have to win it.

“I am mostly fine with the performances we've showed in these finals, we always did what we could do and that's important.

“The real positive thing is that there's still a lot of space for improvement and development - that's what we are going for.

“We feel in a good moment. The closer it comes to the start of the season, it's less important how we feel and more important that we're ready.”

A squad which embarked on a thrilling journey to the Champions League final in Kiev in May has been reinforced with £170million worth of talent this summer.

The arrival of Naby Keita,Fabinho,Xherdan Shaqiri and Alisson Becker has fuelled the belief that the Reds are well equipped to raise the bar this season.

“We believe in it, that's why we do it,” Klopp said. “We don't think constantly about it, we only prepare for the next challenge.

“We had a good team last year. From the team we started with, we lost Emre Can and Philippe Coutinho.

“Now Phil is, if you want, already forgotten as we played half a year without him. But in this moment last season he was in.

“Emre was a fixed line up player – physically strong, football wise strong, he played a lot of games. But it's not like you feel (deflated).

“We've made some really good transfers. I am really happy with what we've got here.

“What we need to do is achieve the point where it all fits together. Bringing together all the qualities of the new players with the qualities of the established players so it really works together so then we can say: 'Now we make the next step.'

“You can't say the next step is tomorrow but hopefully it will be during this season. The next step for us would not be improving our football on the highest level, it would mean playing the same football more often.

“It's not that we say we need to improve this and that. We only need to do what we've already done on our best days much more often.”

Silverware may have eluded Klopp during his Anfield reign so far, but the progress he has overseen and his swashbuckling brand of attacking football has undoubtedly enhanced the club's pulling power in the transfer market.

“We are really back among the top clubs in Europe. That's a big achievement. Nobody is really interested but it is ,” he said firmly.

“We feel it when we sign players now. It's not that we come and say: 'By the way, Liverpool is not as bad as everyone says and the club is still existing, we're still here.'

“We are on the screen now for all the players in the world. They watched us last season, they watched us the year before, they saw what we did.

“It's much easier to convince, actually we don't need to convince them.

“With Virgil (van Dijk) it was like this, with Naby it was like this. Before that it was the same with Sadio (Mane) and Mo (Salah).

“With our signings this summer we didn't have to create some kind of story and say to them: 'The Queen comes to Liverpool sometimes and if you sign for us you can meet her!'

“We only spoke about football - that was enough. That's a good sign for us. Of course we now have to carry on in that way.”

A sense of unity propelled Liverpool towards a top-four domestic finish and a place in the Champions League final last season. Players, staff and supporters all came together as one powerful force.

Neither the January exit of Coutinho nor a succession of injury setbacks in the spring shook them off course. Klopp is keen to harness that spirit and togetherness once again.

“Absolutely. The players did that,” he said.

“Okay, the supporters did it as well. The main thing really was that everybody in the crowd realised: 'This is my team.' The boys realised: 'Okay, now we're their team.'

“It was pretty much the same moment. These boys came together over the course of last season in an exceptional way.

“It started in pre-season with difficult moments with the 'Phil Story' (Coutinho's desire to join Barcelona). We didn't discuss it a lot but everybody knew about it, they knew it was happening.

“You have a good friend but actually he wants to leave. How they dealt with that then and during the season when it was still clear that he wanted to still leave and probably would was so good.

“Phil too. He was 100% here until he left – that was really cool and a good lesson for all of us.

“That's the situation that we need to create again. So these boys really work in the same way, create the same kind of spirit as we had last season as that was the basis for everything we reached. If we want to reach more, that's the least we need.”

Liverpool have a strong platform to build on. Last season was the first time since 2008/09 that the Reds had gone an entire Premier League campaign unbeaten at Anfield and their tally of 10 goals conceded at home was their lowest for 11 years.

In total they kept 17 Premier League clean sheets – their most since 2009/10.

Player of the Year Mohamed Salah shattered a host of records en route to his remarkable 44-goal haul with Roberto Firmino (27) and Sadio Mane (20) also making major contributions.

Not since Ian Rush, Kenny Dalglish and Terry McDermott combined to wreak havoc in the early 80s had Liverpool had three players net at least 20 times each in all competitions.

Yet such was the standard set by champions Manchester City that the fourth placed Reds finished 25 points adrift of Pep Guardiola's side.

Liverpool were never in the race as a slow start saw them win just three of their opening nine league matches.

Can they really bridge that gap in 2018/19 and clinch the prize that Kopites have craved for nearly three decades?

“I don't know, but it's a job to do,” Klopp said.

“It doesn't make sense to think about any other team in the league. We didn't lose the points against City, we lost the points against all the other teams.

“When I say we need to be more consistent, it's about getting more points. Why should we think about City? We only think about them in the moment we play them.

“We don't start chasing them before the season has started and think: 'Oh if they win and we draw on the second matchday, it's done.' That would make no sense.

“We have to be 100% focused on ourselves and take all these games like finals. Whether it's a weekend final or a midweek final, let's play with all we have, final whistle, judge it, analyse it, next game. That's how a season should be.

“In a positive moment you can come into a kind of flow like City had last year. We had to fight much more for our points in most of the games than they had to. But they fought as well – they had a lot of 2-1 results with a late winning goal and all that stuff.

“To play football is very important but to fight for the result is more important. That's what we have to show constantly – that desire to fight for the result. First of all, be ready to fight.”

Pre-season has been a balancing act for Klopp with key personnel returning from World Cup duty at different times.

He will only have his full squad together for the first time on Monday when Dejan Lovren reports back to Melwood.

Some have had to be thrust into action sooner than Klopp would have liked but in the circumstances it's been a productive five weeks - underlined by Saturday's 5-0 thrashing of Napoli.

New signings have settled quickly, star names have returned firing on all cylinders and a host of youngsters have grasped their chance to shine.

“All managers have had the same problem – some teams more, some teams less,” Klopp added.

“But pretty much all teams in Europe have faced the same situation. The problem is not when they're coming back.... in an ideal world you would give them a six-week pre-season like the other boys.

“That's the problem. They come back, yes they're looking sharp now, nice work, but should they look sharp in that moment or in three or four weeks?

“You have seen all of the games. They have all had highs and lows which is normal in pre-season.

“These players we have to treat differently as we come closer to the first game. It's always this kind of mix.

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“It's not ideal, but it's the situation and we have to use it. If you asked the managers in the world if we wanted to change it we would all immediately say: 'Yes, 100%.'

“We want to have all the players together for a six-week pre-season – a two-week camp like in Evian, only training, on the bicycles there and back, three sessions, two sessions, one session, half a day off – that would be perfect.

“Football would then be on another level. It would be quicker and stronger tactically, but instead we are only all together for the final week and then we play.

“We make the best of it. There are much bigger problems in the world than we have got. So far I'm fine with what we've done and how it's worked out.”

So what would represent success for Klopp's Liverpool in 2018/19?

The manager pauses for thought and leans back in his chair.

"Development," he said. "What I wish is winning something. Can I promise it? Of course not.

"But it's what I want to have. You need luck in decisive moments and you need consistent outstanding performance levels - then you earn the right to win something.

"This club has made some fantastic steps in the last few years. For me, now it's about making the next step."

* Don't miss the second part of our exclusive Klopp interview on Monday where he talks bucket lists, his relationship with Liverpool's owners and the role of Reds captain Jordan Henderson.