Jürgen Klopp will begin his first full season as Liverpool manager with a pre-season friendly against Tranmere Rovers, the fifth-tier club of English football in Prenton Park on 8 July. With no European commitments in the new season, the Reds would be eyeing no less than a spot in next year’s UEFA Champions League, and a trophy to show for when the season concludes.
Klopp began his planning for the new season as early as January when he brought Serbian starlet Marko Grujic from Red Star Belgrade and loaned him back to the same club. The 20-year old will be joined by Joel Matip, who joined from Schalke on free-transfer, German goalkeeper Loris Karius, and Sadio Mané, the big money signing from Southampton, for a gruelling pre-season with Klopp planning to have triple training sessions for his team. Further addition of players is also on the cards, and Klopp will be making sure of the deadwood being cleared off the club’s list when the transfer window closes.
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Under Klopp’s reign, Liverpool reached the finals of the Capital One Cup and the Europa League last season, before losing out to Manchester City and Sevilla respectively. Liverpool finished a disappointing eighth in the league last season, though the club played in a more pleasing way than at the start of last season under Brendan Rodgers when the Ulsterman ran out of ideas and eventually got sacked. Klopp had to confront a packed schedule and injuries to several key players, and things got further complicated when Mamadou Sakho was allegedly suspended for failing a drugs test by UEFA.
After facing Tranmere Rovers for the first time in their history, the Reds will visit League One side Fleetwood Town in Lancashire, with the friendly scheduled on 13 July at the Highbury Stadium, marking the first-ever meeting between the two. Klopp’s charges will then entertain Championship side Wigan Athletic on 17 July at the DW Stadium, where Liverpool thrashed Wigan 4-0 in 2013 when both teams last met. The Reds will then come up against another Championship side Huddersfield town, with the match to be played at the John Smith’s Stadium. The Terriers will play Liverpool in a late night kick-off on 20 July when Klopp will face his former Borussia Dortmund associate David Wagner.
Liverpool will then fly to the United States to take part in the International Champions Cup for the second time in three years, where they will be facing premier league counterparts Chelsea and Italian giants AC Milan and Roma, which would provide Klopp’s charges with the ideal platform to test themselves against quality oppositions.
The Reds will play Chelsea at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Los Angeles on 28 July where Klopp will come head-to-head with newly appointed Chelsea manager Antonio Conte, with both sets of supporters keen to draw first blood before the premier league season kicks off. They take on AC Milan at the Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara on 31 July before rounding off their US tour with a tie against Italian powerhouse Roma on 2 August at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.
After their excursions in the US, Klopp’s men will lock horns with La Liga champions Barcelona at Wembley on 6 August, where most of the Reds players will come face-to-face with former Liverpool striker Luis Suarez, who captured the imagination of the Reds supporters all over the world during his three-and-half years at Merseyside.
It will be a homecoming reunion for Klopp when he will lead his team against his former side FSV Mainz at the Opel Arena, where the big German spent eleven years as a player before managing them for seven years during 2001-08. This will be the first meeting between the two sides and is scheduled on 7 August, bringing the Liverpool pre-season to an end.
Since taking charge of Liverpool, Klopp has emphasised the need of changing fans from doubters to believers, and with a proper pre-season under their belt and with their star men fit and firing, the German would be hoping to hit the ground running in the new season, which is poised to be another thrilling campaign.
Date | Opponent | Venue | Kick-off time |
8 July 2016 | Tranmere Rovers | Prenton Park, England | 11.30 pm IST |
13 July 2016 | Fleetwood Town | Highbury Stadium, England | 11.30 pm IST |
17 July 2016 | Wigan Athletic | DW Stadium, England | 8.30 pm IST |
21 July 2016 | Huddersfield Town | John Smith’s Stadium, England | 12.15 am IST |
28 July 2016 | Chelsea | Rose Bowl, Pasadena, USA | 9.00 am IST |
31 July 2016 | AC Milan | Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara, USA | 7.30 am IST |
2 August 2016 | Roma | Busch Stadium, St. Louis, USA | 6.00 am IST |
6 August 2016 | Barcelona | Wembley, England | 9.30 pm IST |
7 August 2016 | FSV Mainz 05 | Opel Arena, Germany | 7.15 pm IST |
