Klopp says he might rest Liverpool’s best players at the start of next season

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Liverpool’s manager Jurgen Klopp has indicated the Euros this summer will affect his preparation for the 2016/17 season.

The German reckons that with many of his best players competing in France for their respective countries, their pre-seasons with Liverpool may actually run in to the start of the Premier League campaign – and he’ll have to taper their minutes accordingly.

“We stop pre-season in the middle of August and maybe with the players who come back from the Euros it will be difficult so we might have to make their pre-season two weeks longer so that it goes into the season. That might mean they do not play at that stage or they are only allowed to play so many minutes,” Klopp told the Guardian.

In regards to the Euros, of Liverpool’s regular starting XI, Simon Mignolet is part of Belgium’s squad but is unlikely to start; Nathaniel Clyne starts for England, while James Milner, Jordan Henderson, Adam Lallana and Daniel Sturridge could do; Dejan Lovren and Mamadou Sakho are suspended for different reasons; Alberto Moreno doesn’t get in Spain’s squad; Emre Can will likely be a sub for Germany and Coutinho and Roberto Firmino are Brazilian.

Firmino hasn’t been selected as part of Dunga’s Copa America squad, but Coutinho will be playing the tournament held in the USA.

From this deduction, a number of our better players may be heavily involved with their national sides this summer, meaning Klopp could well rest them early on next term. This will likely cause frustration among supporters desperate for a quick start, but if it helps us in the long-term, then so be it.

Klopp’s running triple training sessions during pre-season and has appointed Andreas Kornmayer and Mona Nemmer to the conditioning team, so is taking base fitness incredibly seriously.

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