Why Klopp chose Liverpool’s pre-season friendly opponents explained

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Liverpool’s pre-season friendly schedule has been designed to start easy and get progressively harder from now until the start of the campaign, claims John Achterbeg, our goalkeeping coach.

He says this was Jurgen Klopp’s direct instruction, so as to get the squad fully prepared for the 2016/17 season.

“The boss asked us for [the opposition to] build up from the Conference to the Championship, so we discussed with him the teams and what was possible and from there we set the pre-season programme,” Achterberg told the official website. 

Liverpool take on Tranmere this evening at 7pm, before a range of intriguing fixtures take place throughout July and the beginning of August.

We’ve got two more relatively easy games against Wigan and Huddersfield, before our marquee friendlies in America take place against Chelsea, AC Milan and Roma. Then, it’s to London for a glamour tie with Barca, before a final game with Mainz one day later, where we’d expect a different team to take the field.

We’ve not yet seen Liverpool in friendlies under Klopp, so it will be interesting to see the tactic we deploy. Usually, Klopp favours all-action, intense pressing – but this seems a little full on for a non-competitive tie with Tranmere!

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