Liverpool will begin their pre-season tour with a trip to Germany before flying off to Singapore.
On the 17th of July Liverpool will take on German side Karlsruher SC who are currently playing in the second division of German Football. The match would take place at BBBank Wildpark at 17:30 GMT.
The two-time DFB Pokal winners finished 7th in the second division of Germany and they will also be looking to get themselves promoted to the Bundesliga manager Christian Eichner positive about the club’s recent results and would be hoping to see something positive when his team faces the English giants. Karlsruher SC has already started their pre-season and have played 5 matches. The German side has scored a whopping 33 goals in their last five matches while conceding only 8. 18 goals of those 33 came in a pretty one-sided match against Ketsch.
The Reds from Merseyside finished the season without any silverware and outside the top 4, so a good pre-season is what they will need to bounce back this season.
Klopp is desperate to have a better pre-season this time around. Back in April Klopp said that he wants to improve since Day 1 of the pre-season and would want all of his players to come back as soon as possible, we could see on social media that many of the players had cut their holidays short to join their team in the pursuit of having building up momentum from the first go.
Liverpool will fly out to a training camp in Germany on Saturday for their two matches, starting with Karlsruher SC. The match will be broadcasted live on LFC TV.
Fans can expect to see the new signings in Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai, and both of them are scheduled to take part in their first game wearing the infamous Liverpool badge. Whereas doubts will be there for several Liverpool players as a squad revamp is currently going on, which puts the appearance of Jordan Henderson and Fabinho in real doubt.
Under-21 Euro Champions Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliot are also not in the squad as they are granted an extended holiday owing to their international duties. While no player from the German side is expected to miss the game.
The reported team that is supposed to fly to Germany includes:
Goalkeepers: Allison, Adrian, Kelleher
Defenders: Virgil Van Dijk, Joe Gomez, Kostas Tsimikas, Joel Matip, Ibrahima Konate, Andrew Robertson, Nathaniel Phillips (Doubt ), Rhys Williams (Doubt), Trent Alexander Arnold
Midfielders: Jordan Henderson (Doubt), Stefan Bajcetic, Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister
Forwards: Mohammed Salah, Diogo Jota, Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez, Bobby Clark, Ben Doak.
Liverpool predicted starting 11:
Kelleher, Tsimikas, Van Dijk, Konate, Trent, Bajcetic, Mac Allister, Szoboszlai, Gakpo, Diaz, Salah.
It would be interesting to see what kind of formation Klopp deploys in the match. It is expected that we would get to see the rumoured 3-2-2-3 formation with a box midfield but it is still in doubt about who would start as the midfield duo’s future hangs in the balance. Liverpool’s Number 1 Allison is a doubt for the match owing to a minor injury. Kloop can either choose young goalkeeper Kelleher and put some faith in him or the veteran Adrian who has extended his contract that would keep him at Anfield till the end of next season.
Spanish midfielder Thiago is also expected to sit this one out.
It remains to be seen whether Nunez or Gakpo or both of them are deployed as a False 9 (which makes no sense in a 3-2-2-3 formation with 2 attacking midfielders) or as an out-and-out centre forward.
Fans would also get to see Luis Diaz and Dariwn Nunez wearing the new number 7 and number 9 shirt respectively.
Overall Liverpool fans around the world can tune in to see their team getting back in action against an exciting opposition on July 19th.
