Liverpool prepare for another marathon season admitting they are not yet at their best

It has been a while since Liverpool won a Community Shield, the curtain-raiser to the English season and, until 2007, a trophy that no other club had held more often than they had. Partly to blame is that long drought of English league titles, a 30-year longing that was finally soothed in 2020.

They have not been so sharp on penalty shoot-outs in their last two appearances in the one-off showpiece either, losing to Manchester City and Arsenal via spot-kicks on the last occasions they took part.

Jurgen Klopp’s men would back themselves should Saturday's Community Shield against Manchester City go to penalties. They won two domestic cup finals last season that way, both against Chelsea, and in every competition they took part in during 2021-22 there were podium finishes.

Little doubt, though, that the silver medals – Champions League and Premier League – linger in the collective memory more than the golds in FA Cup and League Cup from a draining, record-breaking 63-match campaign in which the league title was only decided, in City’s favour, on the last matchday.

The European Cup was then kept from Liverpool’s grasp in large part by the inspired goalkeeping of Real Madrid’s Thibaut Courtois.

A marathon of a season that entailed playing the maximum number of matches in every competition they entered now tailgates into a new campaign that Klopp describes as “very strange” because of its calendar.

Pre-season has been shorter than usual, the Community Shield bumped forward into July because of the relocating of the World Cup into November-December.

“It is a long season, with a break in between and [effectively] another preseason,” said Klopp, surveying a summer diary that has already included a tour to Asia and friendlies,