In an exclusive interview with Goal, the Reds' head of nutrition, Mona Nemmer, explains how important a healthy diet is to Jurgen Klopp's squad

If you asked Jurgen Klopp to name the most important signings he’s made as a manager, there’s a fair chance the name Mona Nemmer would crop up.

Nemmer is Liverpool’s head of nutrition. Hugely popular and hugely respected, she is, in Klopp’s words, “a transformative figure for professional football,” and “one of the most important team members at LFC”.

Klopp’s players adore her, and lean on her heavily.

“Mona and the chefs have all played a big part in our success,” says Virgil van Dijk. Joe Gomez says Nemmer and her team have “completely evolved” his understanding of what to eat and when. “Mona does an amazing job,” Andy Robertson adds. “She is outstanding.”

Nemmer has worked in football since 2009. She was the chef and nutritionist for the German Under-21 side for four years and spent three as head of nutrition at Bayern Munich, working alongside Pep Guardiola. She joined Liverpool in 2016, Klopp having received a series of glowing recommendations from Bundesliga contacts.

“The importance of nutrition to professional athletes was becoming more obvious and I wanted the best for Liverpool,” he said. “I asked players, coaches and managers from around the world and the same name kept coming up: Mona!”

Nemmer’s job was a big one; to basically overhaul Liverpool’s entire approach to nutrition. She joined up with the Reds squad at a pre-season training camp in Palo Alto, California, and remembers feeling nervous, apprehensive, under pressure.

“I travelled over two or three days before the players,” she tells Goal, speaking at an event to launch her new book A Taste of the Liverpool Way, for which Klopp has written the foreword.

“I knew as soon as I landed that everything needed to be bang on. When you try to change peoples’ nutrition, you need to be so convincing. You only get one chance, and that’s the first chance.

“I spent a lot of energy and thought on how I would impress them. And not just to impress them once, but to gain their trust for the long term. Nutrition has so much to do with trust, because once the trust is there, then you can start building and playing around and changing and tweaking.”