Gini Wijnaldum has lifted the lid on the battle for a starting place in Liverpool's Champions League final - and revealed the primary aim of the training camp in Marbella.
The Reds are coming towards the end of a week-long retreat in Spain in preparation for the showpiece against Tottenham Hotspur in Madrid on June 1.
With Liverpool skipper Jordan Henderson and Fabinho widely expected to start at the Estadio Metropolitano, Wijnaldum is likely to be in a straight fight with James Milner for the final midfield role.
And the Holland international - who came off the bench to score twice in the dramatic 4-0 semi-final win over Barcelona - has revealed how the battle for a starting place continues to help Liverpool reach new heights.
“That’s how we’re used to it, always," he said. "During the season, everyone is training hard and trying to show they should play.
“But we also train to get better as a team, so it’s both of those things – we want to play, we train to play, but also to get better as a team.”
Twenty days will have passed since their final Premier League against Wolverhampton Wanderers when Liverpool step out in the Spanish capital.
And Wijnaldum admits regaining rhythm has been crucial after such a long period without a game, with Jurgen Klopp having given his players five days off last week.
"We have to come back into rhythm again after the few days we had off and so far it’s been good," he said.
“Normally, you’re in a rhythm of training and playing games, but now we don’t play a game for three weeks, so we have to find a rhythm again.
“At this training camp, we train hard, the circumstances can be tough with the weather, but you learn to get used to it. It’ll probably be the same in Madrid, so it’s good for us to have a camp like this.”
Liverpool beat Tottenham 2-1 in both Premier League meetings this season, and Wijnaldum is expecting another close encounter.
“In the last game of the season, we couldn’t control things (in the league) because it wasn’t in our hands," he said to liverpoolfc.com.
"Now, it’s different, it's a final, so we’re going to try to make the best of it and try to win the game, but we know Tottenham are a really tough opponent.
“You could see it (how tough Tottenham are), if you look back at the two games we played against them, they were really tough – especially the second one.
“We won in the end, but it could have gone differently in that game. They are a really tough team; we’ve faced them a lot of times and every time it has been tough – we have never played against them and it was easy – so we know what we will have to do.”
