Jordan Henderson has revealed how a squad attempt to get Jurgen Klopp to move his Liverpool training time was shot down in a matter of seconds by the German.
The Reds' captain has been talking openly about his career and time on Merseyside as a guest on Jake Humphries' High Performance podcast. And during the lengthy interview, Henderson reveals how a change in training regime introduced by Klopp at the start of his Liverpool managerial tenure left the club's players puzzled and not too happy.
Following discussions between the players, it was left to Henderson to speak to the boss to see if he could force through a rethink, but as the midfielder soon discovered - he was wasting his time.
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Speaking to Humphries about Klopp on the YouTube channel, Henderson said: "When he first came, one of the first things he changed - normally up to that point our careers, all of us, we just trained in the morning. We'd come in for 9.30/10am and train for 11/11.30, whatever.
"But we were (now) training in afternoons and times when we were playing a night game then we would train later on in the day. We wouldn't train at 7.30pm but we'd train closer to that time, getting the body ready for playing at that sort of time, which actually when you think about it sort of makes sense. So we started training at four or five O'clock sometimes. You're coming in and you've had a full day.
"The lads were coming in and they felt a bit lethargic, a bit tired. Especially at this time of year. Five O'clock you're going out and it's getting dark. The floodlights are on and you're just starting to train. The lads pulled me - a few of them - and said 'could we have it earlier?' As captain I felt like I needed to at least ask the question, so I thought I will at least have to go and speak to the gaffer.
"So I went up to him and said 'a few of the lads are struggling with these late training times. They feel a bit tired. Is there anyway that we could train in the morning?' he sort of looked at me and said 'Who said that? Who's moaning about it?'
"I thought to myself, I can't be naming people here and chucking people under the bus. So I said 'There's quite a few gaffer and that's why I've come, because they think earlier training [would be better].
"He's [Klopp] just gone 'Well tell them, if anyone's got an issue with training time, come and speak to me directly.' I thought 'oof OK, that's the last time I go and ask anything like that again'. I walked out and told that lads you've got no chance, but if you want it that badly, just go and speak to the gaffer yourself. No-one ever went up!"
Henderson went onto explain that it was clear from the start of his tenure that there was to be no compromising with Klopp's methods as he set about turning Liverpool into a winning machine. Anyone who wasn't prepared to conform was to be shown the door.
Henderson said: "Right from the start it was a case of 'this is the way we're going to do it because I what works and I know that by doing it this way we'll become successful and if you don't want to do it that way, there's the door.'
"If players didn't particularly like it or they couldn't cope for whatever reason, I think the gaffer said right at the start that if a player wanted to leave then he would never stand in their way. I think that straight away that sets the tone. Even for me I was like 'Oh OK'.
"I remember being linked to other clubs and it wasn't a complete shut down at that moment, but it plays on your insecurities a little bit, but looking back that was him setting the tone as if to say 'I know what success looks like and if you're not on board and you want to go elsewhere, no problem, but this is the way we're doing it and get on board.'
"To be fair, the majority got on board pretty quick, because he's really impressive - what he'd done before at Dortmund and Mainz, the way he played, you know that if you got on board you had a good chance of being successful. That's all you want as players."
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