Boss explains next stage of pre-season plan
Liverpool's International Champions Cup clash with Manchester City is likely to mark the beginning of the next phase of their pre-season plan.
In the Reds’ five friendlies so far this summer, Jürgen Klopp has used the depth of his squad to name almost entirely different XIs in each half.
But that policy could come to an end on Wednesday night when Liverpool face Premier League rivals City at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford.
“Usually if you are in Europe – OK, it’s very hot in Europe at the moment – a few of the boys are 100 per cent ready for 90 minutes. That’s how it is,” Klopp explained in an extended interview with Liverpoolfc.com on tour in the United States.
“But with the circumstances we need to make sure we don’t overload them. We have to do training sessions and then the games are only another training session until we play proper league games.
“We will now increase the game time a little bit, 60 minutes or whatever. We have to see how it feels in New Jersey when we play against City.
“You really need to make the decision in that moment. 45 and 45 is perfect in the moment but from now on we will increase it a little bit.”
Klopp will have to wait for another fortnight to have his whole squad together again, with several of the Reds who participated in the World Cup still on holiday.
Xherdan Shaqiri is set to join his colleagues in New Jersey in the coming days, Roberto Firmino and Alisson return next week, and Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jordan Henderson, Dejan Lovren and Simon Mignolet are the last to come back.
“They only have three weeks’ holiday,” said the manager.
“The big group of players had five weeks’ holiday, that’s nearly perfect. In three weeks you don’t lose a lot. It’s not a science, it’s not 100 per cent sure, but in five weeks you will lose maybe 40 or 50 per cent of your fitness level. But we try to keep that on a higher level with the training programme we give them.
“But in three weeks, and especially with only two weeks off, in the two weeks they can play a tennis match or go for a swim but not real training.
“If the last week is already training, they will have a programme in the last week of five days’ training, so it’s not that they’ll do nothing.
“So they will be close and they don’t need a lot of time to be on their level again. But at this moment in time I would say one week until the first game is probably not enough but for the second game at Crystal Palace it could be enough.
“We have to see how they show up. I’m not in doubt they’ll do their programme at 100 per cent, probably a little bit more. Then we’ll have them back and can start with them as well.
“All teams pretty much have the same problem. But if we are a little bit lucky with injuries then we should have a squad ready for going into these games and being a real competitor. But the season is long and we need to prepare them all for the long season, not only for the West Ham game.”