A former Liverpool fitness coach has described Jurgen Klopp‘s fitness regime as “ruthless” and explained what Arne Slot did to improve the Reds’ injury record.
Under Klopp, Liverpool became feared for how they would suffocate their opposition with relentless pressing and energy to get up and down quickly.
The team’s identity was intensity, as former assistant coach Pep Lijnders famously said, and in order to be able to perform in this way, the players were worked incredibly hard on the training pitch.
“In the Jurgen era, the intensity was honestly ridiculous,” ex-fitness coach Jordan Fairclough told The Redmen TV.
“Like watching some of the rondos. I’d say fortunately or unfortunately having to be part of some of those sessions as a player myself, was like, ‘What the?!’
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Monday, October 18, 2021: Liverpool's manager Jürgen Klopp (R) chats with James Milner (L) during a training session at the AXA Training Centre ahead of the UEFA Champions League Group B Matchday 3 game between Club Atlético de Madrid and Liverpool FC. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
“Like the speed it’s happening, honestly unbelievable.”
Fairclough served as a first team physical performance coach from 2018 until 2025, helping the players reach their maximum fitness levels to ensure they were at their best on the pitch.
He added: “The Jurgen era was high intensity. It was ruthlessness in terms of training demands, routines, schedules, training times.
“We won trophies left, right and centre, job done, but it was tough. There were many many periods throughout those years when myself and other coaches and other players would have had 10,12, 14, 15, 18 days in a row without having a day off due to match demands.
“The intensity of that era was unique to us. I don’t remember seeing many other teams that had a schedule similar.”
Liverpool’s current fitness struggles
NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND - Sunday, February 22, 2026: Liverpool's Hugo Ekitike and Alexis Mac Allister celebrate after the FA Premier League match between Nottingham Forest FC and Liverpool FC at the City Ground. The game ended 0-1/ (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Fairclough’s comments come at a time when the current squad are being questioned over whether they are fit enough to play in the style Slot desires.
There is a definite contrast in the schedule employed by Slot and lead physical performance coach Ruben Peeters, with players often given extra recovery days.
The Athletic reported that “sessions last around 90 minutes on an average day, but they are often less intense than under the previous regime,” with greater emphasis on gym work than before.
The fitness of those who arrived last summer, such as Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak, pales in comparison to the pressing monsters, Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Salah of yesteryear.
It was expected that these players would take time to adapt. More worrying, however, is the drop-off from players like Alexis Mac Allister, Cody Gakpo and Ryan Gravenberch.
Preventing injuries under Arne Slot
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Monday, December 8, 2025: Liverpool's manager Arne Slot during a training session at the AXA Training Centre ahead of the UEFA Champions League match between FC Internazionale Milano and Liverpool FC. (Photo by Jessica Hornby/Propaganda)
The squad’s interrupted pre-season, due to the death of Diogo Jota, is likely part of the reason for the team’s below-required fitness levels.
When Slot arrived, he said he wanted more control. This meant there was slightly less running off the ball; there was less chaos.
In turn, Liverpool suffered far fewer injuries last season, an area where Klopp suffered notable crises in early 2023 and 2024.
Fairclough explained how Slot and his staff often used fitness data in determining elements of team selection and rotation.
“In pre-season with Arne, so my last pre-season, he was even more receptive to it than Jurgen was,” said the fitness coach.
“We had iPads at the side of the training pitch which had like the players’ distances and speeds that they had ran in the session so far.
“One thing that we did slightly different under Arne was we really used that data live to pull players out of sessions if they had ‘done enough’.
“But that was new to a couple of players, so a couple of players might have been pulled from training and afterwards they’re like, ‘What’s all that about?’
“You explain the reasons why and the purpose. Unfortunately, you can reference the high number of injuries and re-injuries we have had in the past, where we weren’t able to use that practice.
“And they start to understand it and I think that pre-season at least and that start of the season that I was there, we had one or two soft tissue injuries, which in previous years it might have been three or four, one re-injury.
“It worked.”
Unfortunately, Liverpool have begun to pick up more injuries this season, but many have been purely incidents of misfortune.
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Saturday, September 20, 2025: Liverpool's substitute Alexander Isak on the bench before the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Everton FC at Anfield. The 247th Merseyside Derby. Liverpool won 2-1. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Giovanni Leoni, Conor Bradley and Alexander Isak‘s long-term absences are down to bad luck, but the multiple hamstring injuries suffered by Jeremie Frimpong should be analysed, given that he didn’t suffer these problems at Bayer Leverkusen.
With the new signings having spent a year in the Premier League and Slot another year wiser in management, there is hope that Liverpool improve next season.
Slot wants to play a free-flowing brand of football that focuses on the technical ability of his midfielders to control games.
However, as has been the case for every successful side in football history, you must first outwork and outrun your opposition. This should not be forgotten.