Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool have been forced to arrange an extra friendly after the start of their Premier League campaign in order to get his players up to speed.
Liverpool concluded the Austria leg of their pre-season preparations with a 1-0 defeat by Red Bull Salzburg on Wednesday night. The Reds are now getting ready to face Manchester City in the Community Shield at Leicester ’s King Power Stadium on Saturday before they begin their Premier League campaign against Fulham at Craven Cottage on August 6.
In between those matches, Liverpool will play French side Strasbourg on Sunday at Anfield. But Klopp believes that his side’s upcoming fixture schedule is so intense that his players need more fine-tuning, which will take place in another friendly – potentially against Aston Villa – the day after the Fulham match.
“It is a very important game (against Man City) but the situation is we still have to prepare for a season and we cannot ignore that,” he said on Thursday. “So we have to extend our pre-season into the season. We play on Saturday against City and we play on Sunday a pre-season friendly against Strasbourg.
“Then we play Fulham and the next day we play another game, just so that we can extend our pre-season. That’s what we have to do because from mid-August on I think we play every three days again, so there’s no time for training.”
Klopp has been vocal in his criticism of the fixture list for many years, with governing bodies and broadcasters both on the receiving end of passionate barrages. The German was more level in his assessment of the Community Shield, which he values but would prefer to play on a different date.
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“It’s very important,” Klopp said. “We have played this ‘final’ a couple of times and it would be nice if we could win it. It’s the last domestic cup competition we didn’t win yet so we will give it a try.
“I like the competition but I think it would be possible to find another date for it, maybe, because we had a longer season than other teams, now we have a shorter pre-season than other teams. So that does not make too much sense.”
Klopp opted to start a second-string side against Salzburg on Wednesday before bringing on the big guns for the final 30 minutes in Austria. Although his side couldn’t find an equaliser following Benjamin Sesko’s first-half opener, they did get valuable time on the pitch in a game setting.
The group of players who finished the match give a strong suggestion of Klopp’s first-choice XI for the Man City game. Adrian was in goal due to an injury to Alisson, with Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joel Matip, Virgil van Dijk and Andy Robertson making up the defence. Thiago, Jordan Henderson and Fabinho were in midfield, with Luis Diaz, Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino as the front three.
