‘A lot of work to do’ for Reds as new season draws nearer

Jurgen Klopp is demanding more from his Liverpool squad as their first Premier League game of the season against West Ham creeps ever-closer.

The Reds will hope to hit the ground running when they take on the Hammers at Anfield on Sunday at 13.30.

They face Torino on Tuesday evening in their final pre-season game, after which there will be very little time preparation time left.

“We need to play the first game somehow,” he said. “Then we have another eight days because we play on Sunday and Monday [against Crystal Palace]. That is another pre-season week, I cannot change that. That’s the challenge we have now.

“First of all, we have to make sure we have a good team for Tuesday and then for Sunday, then we have to prepare the next one. There’s still a lot of work to do.”

READ: Alisson set for Anfield debut against Torino

READ: Klopp on Jordan Henderson’s role

The team looks in fine fettle after putting five past Napoli at the Aviva Stadium last weekend, but Klopp was keen to stress his defensive concerns.

“I saw a lot of things we were good in. I saw a lot of things we have to improve – not we should, we have to improve,” he admitted.

“In different moments we lost our compact formation when they played football. 5-0 sounds really clear and it is clear, but we all saw in the first half they had a lot of moments where they were in our box.

“Being in our box three times alone in front of the goalkeeper should not happen. It was only because of the formation, we were not compact enough in these situations.

“But football playing-wise, a lot of moments were really good. Now we need to get back the freshness, for one thing, and the other thing we still need to work on is endurance. The boys are not all on the same level, you can see that.”

For the likes of Trent Alexander-Arnold and Roberto Firmino, who only linked up with the squad last week after their post-World Cup holidays but hope to start against the season-opener, Tuesday’s game will be crucial.

The post ‘A lot of work to do’ for Reds as new season draws nearer appeared first on AnfieldHQ.

Source: anfieldhq.com