Liverpool have announced their summer tour scheduled during the preseason for next year’s campaign. The Reds will once again travel to Asia and take in Shanghai and Hong Kong playing two games. The games are likely to be played on the 20th and 22nd of July, but the agenda is yet to be confirmed. It will be a shorter trip than in previous years however, this time only due to last for less than a week. The club will instead opt to hold a training camp based in a European country for the remaining free time with Germany being the most likely option. It is a move which is thought to cut down on the work load and busy travel schedule of the payers before the new season.
This is likely to be Jurgen Klopp’s decision to reduce the work load of this particular part of preseason so that the players can instead work on fitness and season preparation. The German manager has claimed recently that the lack of a winter break was the cause of the poor run of form suffered by the team since the New Year. Over those four weeks the team was noticeably lacking in cover for key players, and looked tired at times. The idea of a winter break has been much discussed over the last few years but is yet to be implemented by the Premier League. Cutting down the travel time preseason may be one way to compensate for this lack of break in the middle of the campaign.
In previous tours the club has been away for up to a fortnight, playing in more friendly matches. At the start of this season the players were in America for almost two weeks, playing three games. Generally, the club cycles between a trip to North America one year and Asia the next. 2015 was the last time Liverpool players visited Asia and that time they included Australia also. There will be no time to visit Australia this year however as it will be cut from the regular tour. This will likely see the Reds miss out on some rewarding marketing possibilities due to the fan base in that area of the world. Instead, the club seem to back the manager giving him more time to work with the players. Given the lack of travel and International tournaments, this will be a good opportunity for the players to spend a whole preseason with Klopp.
