Jurgen Klopp has claimed he wants Liverpool to restart the season quickly as they prepare for their League Cup clash with Manchester City on December 22.
The Reds fell to a 3-1 friendly defeat to Lyon earlier today and although the result didn’t go in his side’s favour, the German tactician was happy with ‘a lot of things’ during the clash in Dubai.
“That’s the plan… we want to chase; we want to be really ready immediately,” the German said when asked about starting the second half of the campaign quickly (as quoted by Liverpoolfc.com). “That’s why we have to use the time now, we have to train [and] really give the boys proper intensity in training and again, that’s why I was really happy with big parts of the first half. Knowing… seeing if this is the right direction, 100 per cent. It was not always the case in the summer preparation, but we played the game tonight [and] I saw a lot of the things I wanted to see.
“So, I’m positive, but of course we play tough, tough teams. We start with Man City and then we play against Aston Villa with still a new manager. They will be highly energised, so that’s all clear, we know that, but we want to be, again, the most difficult team to play against and it’s up to us to be that.”
Despite the disappointment of Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota still being ruled out through injury, there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic ahead of the resumption of the campaign.
We’re still fighting on all four fronts, have a Champions League last-16 tie with Real Madrid to look forward to and before the break for the World Cup we had won eight of our last 10 games (across all competitions).
The likes of Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea and Spurs all had a lot more players than us representing their respective nations out in Qatar and they may therefore be experiencing fatigue in the new year.
If they are, then it’s imperative that we capitalise on any opportunities as we’re already 15 points behind league leaders Arsenal.
Let’s hope that the lads are raring to go when we visit the Etihad in 11 days time and we put down a marker.
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