It felt as though the trip to Asia was the club’s plan and now Jurgen Klopp will get his way, with Liverpool’s trip to Austria and Germany.
Not just because it’s a lot closer to home for the boss but because this is where he will really work on his players’ fitness and tactics for the new campaign.
The club have now also revealed which 31 players will be joining the German and his coaching staff: ‘Liverpool’s training camp squad: Alisson, Fabinho, Van Dijk, Konate, Thiago, Milner, Keita, Firmino, Salah, Gomez, Adrian, Henderson, Jones, Elliott, Tsimikas, Ramsay, Diaz, Robertson, Nunez, Carvalho, Matip, Bajcetic, Phillips, Gordon, Mabaya, Hughes, Alexander-Arnold, Van den Berg, Morton, Mrozek, Davies’.
The privacy of a week-long stay in Salzburg will be the perfect break for all the lads, as the fine tuning will really commence ahead of a new campaign.
It’s a shame for the likes of Diogo Jota and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to miss out through injury and this will really upset their fitness regimes, in the final few weeks of the summer preparation.
We can take positives from Alisson Becker, Joe Gomez, Calvin Ramsay and Kaide Gordon returning from their fitness issues though and they will all look to get back up to speed immediately.
The one glaring omission in terms of presence in the squad and in terms of a fitness update is Caoimhin Kelleher, who will either still be injured or could be set for a transfer away – although no links have been rumoured yet.
One to keep an eye on, as our pre-season really begins to intensify.