Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has revealed that any players who report to Zoom video calls late will be hit with a fine, insisting that the meetings are as important as normal training sessions.
With the 2019-20 Premier League campaign still on hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, all players and staff from clubs across the country are being forced to practice self-isolation at home in accordance with new government legislation.
The United Kingdom has been one of the worst affected areas of Europe to date, with 88,621 cases and 11,329 deaths recorded to date.
A tentative date of April 30 was originally set for football to return, but those plans were scrapped at the start of the month, and it has been suggested that the season could be voided completely if lockdown measures are not lifted in some capacity over the next few weeks.
Liverpool are facing a more anxious wait than most as the battle to contain the spread of Covid-19 continues, as they sit on the verge of top-flight glory for the first time in 30 years.
Klopp's men need only two more wins to be crowned champions of England, having already established a 25-point lead at the top of the table after 29 fixtures.
The German boss is attempting to keep morale high by holding regular online meetings with the squad, and says there are strict punishments in place for anyone who fails to show up on time.
"Some people may say it’s like a normal meeting or normal session we have! But it’s not like this. I like that as well," Klopp told Liverpool's official website of how he stays in contact with his players.
"When we start at 10, the chat is open from 9.30 on and pretty much everybody is already in. Especially in the first few, they were all pretty early in the chat, so it was really chaotic.
"Meanwhile, they join it later now everybody knows how it works technically and stuff like that. So they come later, but in time, which is important – because we fine that as well!
"Too late in a Zoom session means you have to pay! That’s the best thing of having this situation in 2020 – we have this technical opportunity.
"Imagine if we would have had that in the ‘80s or something like that, it would have been really crazy.
"Not because of football, because of all the social contact and interaction we can have and use at the moment. That makes a big difference."
Getty ImagesKlopp went on to describe how happy it makes him to see "the boys again" in online sessions, but also admitted that it "hurts" being away from the people he is closest to.
"It’s just great. Look, it’s so different. Everything is different in the moment and we do all different stuff," he added.
"When we have these training sessions, I could have never imagined I would enjoy it that much but it’s just the moment when I see the boys again and that changes everything – for a minute, for an hour, for two hours, however long the sessions are.
"The boys are all in good spirits; you feel immediately why you miss them so much, because it’s just an exceptional group.
"You want to be together with them, you want to have them around, you want to be closer to them than you can be.
"These are the closest moments, apart from exchanging messages with them and asking, ‘How are you?’ and stuff like this.
"So I enjoy these sessions really a lot. It’s getting worse, the longer it takes. I accept the situation 100 per cent like it is but the longer you don’t see somebody you like, the more it hurts.
"That’s the situation we are in at the moment."