Tottenham Hotspur’s pre-season friendly against Leicester City succumbed to adverse weather conditions in Bangkok, something Jurgen Klopp knows all too well.
Heavy rainfall in the region meant that the playing surface at the Rajamangala National Stadium was unplayable and unsafe. It would have been Spurs’ second friendly of the summer, following their 3-2 defeat to West Ham in Perth.
Now their pre-season preparations have taken a hit as they miss out on potentially valuable 90 minutes against Enzo Maresca’s side.
The Liverpool manager has witnessed first-hand the struggles of starting pre-season in Asia, as part of their Premier League Asia Trophy engagement, during the monsoon season.
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Six years ago, rain wreaked havoc on their training schedule in Hong Kong, with the conditions forcing the cancellation of a training session in 2017. Klopp was understood to be unhappy with the chaotic nature of preparations and Liverpool would not return to Asia until last summer.
And the Reds boss has been open about his thoughts on the stretch of pre-season following their latest trip to the continent.
“Yes [it’s a worry],” Klopp said at the time. “What can I say, of course – I’m a football manager, I’m interested in the game.
“I’m interested in the quality of the game, and different things affect the quality. Players do, of course, [and] the pitch is very important but if it is bad we cannot change it. We have our first practice this afternoon and we’ll see how it goes.
“It’s an outside sport so you have to adapt to the weather and for all teams it’s the same. I hope it’s okay and then we’ll see.”
Ultimately, Liverpool beat Crystal Palace in that game in 2017, but the German tactician was unhappy with the injury risk the pitch posed to his players after bearing deluge of rain.
They returned to the region last summer but managed to get through their schedule without a hitch, although they endured a poor preparation highlighted by their 4-0 defeat to rivals Manchester United.
Ahead of the previous campaign, it provided the first build-up to a new post-COVID season, affecting travel plans and preparations. One factor of the congested pre-season schedule was due to the early start of the season, as a result of the World Cup being rescheduled to November and December.
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Unlike last season, their time in Asia has been delayed until later in their preparations. This time their trips to the scenic parts of Europe come first.
And Liverpool continue to fine-tune their pre-season preparations as Klopp looks to avoid the problems Tottenham have faced, as well as the air miles and disruption to training sessions and matches.
Starting the pre-season schedule at the AXA Training Center before increased intensity in Germany has apparently been one of the changes in the routine after last season’s preparations. Karlsruher SC provided the first challenge this week before Greuther Furth pose the next threat on Monday in their second pre-season friendly.
It has been a small change from Klopp that may have gone unnoticed, but he highlighted the desire to change in January, saying: “Would I have done anything differently? I wouldn’t have gone to Asia in the first week. Not because Asia isn’t great, but I would have gone to Asia in the third week, or something like that, but it wasn’t really in our hands.
“Is that the reason? No, I don’t think so. But would it have been better to do it differently? Yes. We learn from things like that, but in the end we have to deal with them.”
Talking about We Are Liverpool podcastKlopp outlined how important this period of pre-season is for his team and his own preparations.
“We’ll have a few very important ones, but this one is super important,” he began. “Everything starts with an idea, an idea of how we want to play, an idea of how we want to react, an idea of how we want to fight back and want to do better.
“Pretty much the headline for this pre-season is we have to do better and to do better starts with more, do more. That’s what we’re doing here. I like it a lot.”
Liverpool are returning to South East Asia as part of their plans for the upcoming Premier League season. Although they will spend less time in the humid climate of Singapore, where they play two games in three days against Leicester City and then Bayern Munich.
The Reds return to England to play another German outfit in the form of SV Darmstadt at Preston North End’s Deepdale before the season gets under way.
Tellingly, Klopp’s foresight to change their schedule for the upcoming Premier League season has seemingly paid off after a number of positive sessions. Meanwhile, the north London club are suffering a setback in their preparations.