Liverpool could benefit from a major double boost as Jurgen Klopp made an unusual alteration.

Red blood: Liverpool’s long-term planning for next season has finally given them something to aim for as the season comes to a close.

Jurgen Klopp and his staff appeared to draw a line in the sand on this season during the March international break.

While the majority of his players were away with their different national teams, Klopp turned down the opportunity for a full week off, which he usually does when things are going well, and instead went to work on designing a path back to the top of English football.

When asked if he had used the international break to make significant inroads into plans for next season in terms of recruitment, Klopp replied, “That is the only thing we do in the international break, apart from have a few days off.” I’d say the player side was positive. because it was just discussions, not decisions – because we’re busy.”

The Reds were sixth in the Premier League at the time and had recently been defeated 1-0 by a Bournemouth side that had finished bottom of the table in their last match. A top-four finish appeared a pipe dream, and the talk around the AXA Centre seemed to be about a team whose focus had shifted to what could be accomplished next season.

“The future has started already, let me say it like this,” Klopp said last month, while also admitting: “Next season is already on my mind.” While the manager has often cut a relaxed figure in his Friday press conferences – maintaining an even keel for the most part regardless of recent good, bad or indifferent form – the signs are pointing towards someone who is quietly determined to ensure there is no repeat for the 23/24 campaign.

“We tried to give ourselves a chance with a fresh start and a lot of different football things, and we had a kind of new start now,” Klopp explained on Friday. “We had one week, eight or nine days of training, and we wanted to use that time to jump right into the new season.” We had no idea where it would take us, but it was a breath of fresh air.”

The fact that Klopp is bracing himself to ensure a significant improvement next season should thrill Liverpool fans as they prepare for a busy summer of rebuilding a group that will lose a number of key players.

The decisive decision to withdraw from a bidding war for Jude Bellingham – a player who would take up the lion’s share of the Reds’ transfer kitty this summer – has been made in order to spread the funds across a handful of other midfield options, and regardless of your position on that, it at least suggests Klopp is intent on significantly restructuring in the areas that have cost him this season.

The choice to rotate the two legs of the pre-season program, for example, reflects a manager eager to get his squad up to speed faster than last summer, when it was later conceded that operational errors were made.

“I wouldn’t go to Asia in the first week of preseason,” Klopp remarked in January. “Not because Asia isn’t great, but even in the third week, I wouldn’t go.” But we don’t have much control over it. Is that the cause of our problems? I don’t believe so, although it would have been preferable to do things differently. We learn from these experiences.”

Rather than sending his players to the Far East for a more commercially-driven trip before building up real base levels of fitness at a European-based training camp later in the summer – a schedule that contributed to muscle injuries for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Diogo Jota – Klopp is said to be steadfast in his belief that those issues will be far less likely to be encountered if the long-haul journeys are undertaken after a summer camp in Germany this time.

The decision to move Thiago Alcantara’s surgery forward in order for him to be ready to report for duty at the start of pre-season is another indication that Liverpool’s thinking is very much about the long-term benefits that can be gleaned as they attempt to win the Premier League title again next season.

Another example is Trent Alexander-Arnold’s recent tactical shift, which has seen him become a de facto central midfielder whenever in possession after years of being the creative fulcrum at right-back.

The fact that the plan was only implemented when top-four chances appeared to have faded shows that it was – or is – being considered in less pressured conditions where points are not as important as they typically are. The experiment is at least producing results, with the No.66 flourishing as one of the Premier League’s top players during the previous month.

Interestingly, while Klopp and his side have been focused on how they might steal a march on the new season, they have put themselves into the mix for something tangible at the end of this one. Six consecutive victories and an eight-game undefeated streak have moved them to within a point of fourth-placed Manchester United.

The Red Devils still have a game to play, but given the hardships endured over the last nine uncertain months, the fact that supporters still have hope to hold in the final weeks is significant.

And even if Liverpool fails to win the Champions League, they can be certain that preparations for a crucial summer and the upcoming season have been in the works for quite some time.