After surrendering the Premier League title to Man City last season in disastrous fashion, Liverpool’s goal for the upcoming campaign will be simple: to reclaim the English top-flight crown from Pep Guardiola’s stellar side. That’s easier said than done but the Reds have received a huge boost – two, in fact – ahead of the 2021/22 kick-off.
The Merseyside giants embark on their Premier League campaign in less than a month’s time, taking on Norwich on Matchday 1 on August 14. In preparation for that, Klopp’s side have headed to Austria for their pre-season where they will take on the likes of FC Wacker, Stuttgart, Mainz, and Hertha Berlin.
And much to the glee of the Liverpool fan base, several of Liverpool’s injured players are expected to return for the pre-season. This includes English defensive duo Joe Gomez and Trent Alexander-Arnold, with Klopp denying rumors that the earlier had suffered a set-back in his road to recovery.
Gomez, alongside fellow center-back Virgil van Dijk, has not featured for his club in this calendar year after picking up a season-ending knee injury back in November 2020. Trent, on the other hand, was present in 2020/21 for the most part but endured a rocky campaign, with everything culminating in a disappointing thigh issue that ruled him out of Euro 2020.
Speaking to the club’s official website, Klopp initially began by touching upon Matip and Van Dijk, saying: “It’s different [for each of them]. I think there is absolutely no doubt Joel can play on Tuesday.
“Trent looks for me like [he can] but I will have to speak to the medical department and they will tell me if it is too early. I don’t think [it is], I think he could play a few minutes on Tuesday.
“Then, Joe and Virgil are in a similar situation – not exactly the same, but similar. Both have done parts of our normal training and then they have to do extra parts.
“Yesterday we had to do some sprints – hard sprints and these kind of things, which we didn’t do in the normal training – so they do extra stuff and sometimes a little bit less if the things what we are doing is too intense for them. They are getting closer and closer, that’s the impression we have.
“What they did in training so far worked really well and we will see when we can involve them in complete normal training – I don’t know that and I don’t rush it either. It makes no sense, we waited so long and now we can wait a few days longer, that’s no problem.”
When discussing the issue of Gomez’s alleged setback, the German tactician added: “Not at all. No setbacks at all. Not for Joe, nothing – he’s trained completely normal.
“That’s the thing, these boys are not injured anymore, they are just not at 100 per cent yet. There are usually setbacks but so far there were no setbacks with Joe and Virgil and nobody [else] – they are all fine. What they had to do they did, no reaction with the knee, nothing, all fine. The world wide web had obviously too much time.”
After witnessing Liverpool’s injury plague last term, fans will welcome these positive updates. Despite signing Ibrahima Konate from RB Leipzig, the Reds will be keen on having their experienced back four fit and ready to go come August 14’s trip to Carrow Road.
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