Liverpool FC Forum

Pre-season friendlies
Tranmere Rovers – A – Thursday 11th July – 19:30
Bradford City – A – Sunday 14th July – 15:00
Borussia Dortmund – N (Indiana-US) – Saturday 20th July –  1:00
Sevilla – N (Boston–US) – Sun 21st July – 23:00
Sporting CP – N (New York–US) – Thursday 25th July – 1:00
SSC Napoli – N (Edinburgh-Scotland) – Sunday 28th July – 17:00
Olympique Lyonnais – N (Genève-Switzerland) – Wed 31st July – 18:00

Charity Shield
Manchester City – N (London-UK) – Sunday 4th August –15:00

First Premier League game
Norwich City – H – Friday 9th August – 19:45

Rhian Brewster, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and the other Liverpool stars set for pre-season return to Melwood this week

Liverpool return to pre-season training on Saturday at Melwood as Jurgen Klopp begins preparations for new campaign

A depleted Liverpool squad will report back to Melwood for the start of pre-season training on Saturday.

Five weeks after the Reds' glorious Champions League final triumph, Jurgen Klopp and his staff will put the first wave of players through their paces.

The initial group will include those senior players who weren't involved in international fixtures after the cherished victory over Tottenham in Madrid such as Fabinho, James Milner, Joel Matip, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Adam Lallana.

Nathaniel Clyne is also scheduled to return after his loan spell at Bournemouth.

Highly-rated striker Rhian Brewster will be among a host of youngsters given the opportunity to impress in the early stages of pre-season in the absence of star names.

Liverpool's first friendly fixture is against Tranmere Rovers at Prenton Park on Thursday, July 11 followed by a trip to Bradford City three days later prior to the tour of America.

The England contingent of Jordan Henderson, Joe Gomez and Trent Alexander-Arnold, the Dutch duo of Virgil van Dijk and Gini Wijnaldum, Belgium's Divock Origi and Simon Mignolet, Scotland captain Andy Robertson, Croatia's Dejan Lovren and Swiss attacker Xherdan Shaqiri will be on board in the States.

However, Liverpool will be without those who are still currently involved in the Copa America and the Africa Cup of Nations, including Alisson Becker, Roberto Firmino, Naby Keita, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah.

Most Premier League clubs are already in pre-season training but Liverpool's return date reflects the fact that a gruelling 2018/19 campaign was extended by three weeks due to their passage to the Champions League final.

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/f ... n-16519610

damjan193 » Sun Jul 07, 2019 9:25 am wrote:Egypt knocked out of the cup, so Salah should be back in time for the friendlies in the USA, along with the Brazilians, who play their final game later tonight.

So that only leaves Mane. If his country go all the way in the African cup, he'll probably miss the entire pre-season, and possibly the start of this year's campaign.

damjan193 » Sun Jul 07, 2019 9:25 am wrote:Egypt knocked out of the cup, so Salah should be back in time for the friendlies in the USA, along with the Brazilians, who play their final game later tonight.

So that only leaves Mane. If his country go all the way in the African cup, he'll probably miss the entire pre-season, and possibly the start of this year's campaign.

Pig Catcher » Sun Jul 07, 2019 11:23 am wrote:

damjan193 » Sun Jul 07, 2019 9:25 am wrote:Egypt knocked out of the cup, so Salah should be back in time for the friendlies in the USA, along with the Brazilians, who play their final game later tonight.

So that only leaves Mane. If his country go all the way in the African cup, he'll probably miss the entire pre-season, and possibly the start of this year's campaign.

No chance of that I'd think. I'd imagine as a minimum Salah, Mane and Firmino will get 3 weeks holiday after their final games for their international teams. I reckon Salah and Firmino will be back in training the week of the 29th with them both being able to make the starting lineup against Norwich on 9th August. Senegal have progressed to the knockout stages of the African Nations so I can see Mane missing the opener.

Slightly worried about our front 3. We've had two two long seasons where we've got all the way to the final of the Champions League and we've been fighting hard right until the final league game of the season. Sandwiched between those two tough seasons was the world cup with all 3 playing. We desperately need to get some high quality support for them as they start every game and we've been riding our luck a little in terms of injuries to the front 3.