Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp plans extra pre-season game after campaign begins

Jurgen Klopp has revealed Liverpool will arrange another ‘pre-season’ friendly for after their Premier League campaign begins.

The Reds begin their 2022-23 season when they face Manchester City in the Community Shield on Saturday before travelling to Fulham for their league opener on August 6th.

With this winter’s World Cup necessitating an early start, Reds manager Klopp feels his squad are under-prepared after a shortened pre-season.

To counter that, he intends to continue playing friendlies into the season with a further fixture to be added to the schedule after the trip to Craven Cottage. Liverpool are already following up Saturday’s game by hosting Strasbourg at Anfield on Sunday.

“It is a very important game (on Saturday) but the situation is we still have to prepare for a season and we cannot ignore that,” said Klopp, whose side won both domestic cups and finished runners-up in the Premier League and Champions League last term.

“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.”

Saturday’s curtain-raiser against champions City – which is being played at Leicester’s King Power Stadium as Wembley is prepared for the Euro 2022 final – comes too soon for goalkeeper Alisson Becker.

The Brazilian has resumed training after being hampered by an abdominal problem but is targeting the Fulham game.

With second-choice goalkeeper Caoimhín Kelleher also injured, Adrian is likely to feature.

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