Preseason results are never a great indication of how a team will fare in any sport, and should always be taken with a grain of salt. But Liverpool supporters are still bound to feel a bit uneasy after the Premier League contenders finished a three-game tour of the United States without registering a single win.
The tour began with a 3-2 loss to Borussia Dortmund last Friday at Notre Dame, before they dropped a 2-1 decision to Sevilla in Boston on Sunday.
Klopp Ready to Forget Last Season’s Success
Liverpool did manage to salvage a draw against Sporting CP at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday to make sure they gave their stateside fans something to cheer about. But one draw in three matches is still a disappointing haul for a club that is fresh off a Champions League title and a runner-up finish in the EPL.
“After this trip, nobody should talk to me too often anymore about the Champions League trophy,” manager Jurgen Klopp said after the Sporting CP match. “That’s now finished, we don’t carry it with us all the time still, so we really can start writing a new book or chapter or whatever.”
The tour was a particularly intense one for the Reds. The team played three matches during its nine days in the USA, and that was combined with extensive practice that was necessary to help prepare for the season to come.
“Three games in a pretty short period after a couple of days’ training in Liverpool for the boys who were in from the first day, it was absolutely OK,” Klopp said. “For the others it was maybe a bit too much, but we had to do it anyway for different reasons.”
Questionable Depth Behind Liverpool Stars
Liverpool leave certainly contribute a more gifted incline to the board when it returns to Europe. The noted smiling ternary of Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah have not even get under one’s skin into breeding yet, nor has goalkeeper Alisson. Most are expected to connect the squad for civilising in France following workweek, then have parting in a last exposition lucifer against Lyon on July 31, with Mane representing expected back on Aug. 5. All are having open frames after take parting in continental journeys like the Africa Cup of Nations and the Copa America.
But what the spell coiffure bring out represent a want of astuteness for the Reds, particularly up front. Harry Wilson and Ryan Kent both get under one’s skin hazards to examine they merit to represent in the rotary motion during the spell, but neither search like even an decent replenishment should any of Liverpool is giving three scores suffer injuries during the time of year.
That’s not an immediate worry, but Liverpool would still have liked to have seen better from what amounted to a B-plus team, especially when Klopp sent out what was likely the best possible starting lineup for the match against Sporting. If nothing else, the tour has shown that Liverpool could use a couple more solid contributors off the transfer market to provide a deeper rotation for what should be a busy season.
Liverpool remains a top competition for both the EPL and Champions League deeds of conveyance, though it is not beginning alternative in either competitor. Take aftering an unbelievable deed of conveyance subspecies that realise the Reds add up up just short final time of year, William Hill has them as a 5/2 woof to gain the 2019-2020 Premier League, lagging only holding blisters Manchester City (8/15).
Meanwhile, Liverpool is a 7/1 woof to hold its Champions League deed of conveyance. Man City (4/1) is again the dearie, with Barcelona (5/1), Real Madrid (7/1), and Juventus (7/1) also among the passing competition to have home base a European deed of conveyance following twelvemonth.