Chester beaten by seven goals. Tranmere Rovers defeated 3-2 and then came the 0-0 draw against Bury that lit the house on fire. Liverpool haven’t been defeated during pre-season but a number of fans were upset with the result against Bury.
Fans were upset that we could not defeat lower league opposition and the match was a dire one, despite us having the likes of Daniel Sturridge, Divock Origi, Fabinho and Naby Keita.
While being held to a draw against lower league opposition would have hurt in the regular season, pre-season is mostly about getting into shape and more importantly, rhythm.
These are two important aspects of our play under Jurgen Klopp. The pressing and understanding between the players must be spot on and that can only be achieved by going through the gears against opponents in pre-season.
Additionally, each game gives the manager a lot of understanding about which player needs to work on what aspect of the game before the crunch season begins.
A team that is properly prepared during the off-season has a much better campaign, or at least a better start to the campaign than just ensuring we win the games by any means necessary.
Big names still missing for the team
Now this being a World Cup year has had a huge impact on our attack. Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino were all away in Russia. In fact, a large contingent of our World Cup participants haven’t even returned to Melwood as they have an extended holiday.
Our latest signing Xherdan Shaqiri actually cut short his holiday to complete his move to Anfield and most of our players should be looking to return for the US pre-season campaign which begins from 22 July.
So our entire first-team attack, captain Jordan Henderson and a number of first teamers are yet to even train with the side, so we should get better once they rejoin the squad.
We still may not see our front three start together in the US but that part of our pre-season will see us take on tougher opponents and will give us a better gauge of just where we are in terms of preparations for the new season.
Pre-seasons have always been great under Jurgen Klopp, like last season, where we remained undefeated in normal time (we won’t count penalty losses for now) and that too helped us in our Champions League qualifiers against Hoffenheim.
The supporters, at least some of them, have to take into account we are still not 100% or even close to 70% when it comes to being prepared and we still have close to a month for the start of the season.
Jurgen Klopp was happy with the performance in the 0-0 draw, our players got a lot of time on the pitch and we even saw some of the youngsters pick up important minutes.
Read more: Liverpool transfer news: Steve Nicol has a word of caution on Klopp’s latest signing
That should be enough for the squad as they prepare for another fixture that edges us closer to the season. Calm down, enjoy the games and relax, as we could be in for another fantastic ride with Klopp steering us to glory, hopefully, and a lot of exciting football.
