As introductions go, it was a far from comfortable one for Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai on Tuesday on their first day on the job at Liverpool.
The pair reported for duty for day one of the pre-season schedule at their new clubs following their international exertions last month for Argentina and Hungary, respectively.
Mac Allister became a Reds player in early June when World Cup winner was snared from Brighton & Hove Albion for a fee of £35m before Szoboszlai's £60m release clause at RB Leipzig was triggered on June 30.
It's been a busy few weeks for both players given their post-season commitments. Mac Allister flew to the United States at the end of the Premier League campaign with his Brighton club-mates before a short break in Miami with his partner. After concluding his medical in the Manchester area in early June, he then flew out to China and Indonesia for Argentina friendlies before a summer holiday.
For Szoboszlai, he flew back to Leipzig to say his goodbyes before departing for Budapest where he was able to catch up with those at his former academy, Fonix Gold, alongside a press conference to showcase the most expensive Hungarian footballer of all time.
It's been a busy period for both, but the hard work really started on Tuesday. In what is one of the most feared days on the calendar for Reds players, Klopp and his fitness staff put the team through the now infamous lactate test to crown a new champion following James Milner's summer departure to Brighton & Hove Albion.
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The look on Mac Allister's face told the full story after the morning workout at the AXA Training Centre. With exhaustion etched all across it, the former Brighton midfielder said: "The highlight of the day was when I tried to make a foul on Diogo (Jota) when we were doing the lactate test.
"It's nice, it's nice to be here with my team-mates. Of course it is a tough day but it is nice to start pre-season like this."
Szoboszlai, who went close in the eventual race to be crowned the next lactate king, impressed Trent Alexander-Arnold in particular with his lung-busting efforts, with the former RB Leipzig man adding: "It was really hard, but really good. The highlight? The running. The running."
If the pair thought they were getting a gentle opening afternoon as Reds players, they were sorely mistaken and while Klopp and his staff no doubt get a kick out of pushing their players to their absolute limits upon their return, there is also a serious point to all the exertions.
Klopp typically sees the pre-season programme, particularly during the days on the pitches of the training ground, as 'his time' to shape the squad to his requirements for the coming campaign. The inability to get any real days on the training pitches during the busy season is something he often laments, so he attempts to extract as much as possible when the opportunity arises.
A European-based training camp is also designed to really build up the base levels of fitness that will hold them in good stead for the season ahead, particularly in the closing stages when the fixture list becomes jam-packed and the importance of the games themselves only grows.
Mistakes were made 12 months ago. Liverpool suffered a string of muscle injuries between mid-July and late-August as a result, which had a destabilising effect on an underwhelming campaign that saw them drop to their lowest finish of any of Klopp's full terms as manager in fifth.
Diogo Jota, Joel Matip, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Naby Keita, Thiago Alcantara, Ibrahima Konate, Jordan Henderson, Curtis Jones and Alisson Becker all pulled up with injury issues during that period and Klopp later admitted that the summer schedule had been far from ideal.
"I wouldn’t go in the first week (of pre-season) to Asia,” Klopp revealed back in January when he was asked if he would have done anything differently the previous summer.
“It's not because Asia is not great, but I would go to Asia in the third week or something like that. But it was not really in our hands. Is that the reason [for our struggles]? No, I don’t think so. But would it have been better to do it differently? Yes. We learn from these kinds of things.”
Efforts have been made to try and avoid a similar pile-up of problems this time around with the decision taken to swap around the commercial and training legs of their pre-season itinerary.
Rather than fly to a far-flung destination for a host of commercially-driven activities before the taxing training camp on the continent, Liverpool have rejigged their timeline so that the players get fitter much earlier. It's all been designed to achieve peak fitness quicker and avoid injuries as a result.
It might be a shock to the system for Mac Allister and Szoboszlai but there is a plan behind it all as the £95m arrivals continue to get settled at their new club. Both are in line to make their unofficial debut against Bundesliga II side Karlsruhe on July 19 before a behind-closed-door match with Greuther Furth a few days later.
Aside from being whipped into shape by famed taskmaster Andreas Kornmayer, however, there will also be a more socially-driven element to the trip to Germany as the pair get to know their team-mates better.
Virgil van Dijk marvelling at Mac Allister's lock screen picture on his phone of him holding aloft the World Cup was a nice icebreaker for the new man.
Previous years have seen karaoke nights, fishing excursions, BBQ parties and table tennis tournaments, which are all designed to further harness the spirit that exists within the group. Such activities are viewed as an important part of those trips and go beyond providing stimulation for the players while away from their families.
Day one might have been an eye opener for Liverpool's new recruits but there is a method to the madness.
