Singapore Festival of Football: Liverpool focused on banishing last season's woes

SINGAPORE — There was no hint of disappointment or regret on the relaxed and jovial faces of the Liverpool players as they mingled with their fans amid their Singapore pre-season trip on Saturday (29 July).

But make no mistake about it, every Reds player is eager to banish the memories of their last English Premier League season, when their team struggled mightily with injuries, loss of form and burnout from chasing four trophies in the season before the last.

From winning the League Cup and FA Cup to finishing trophy-less and out of the Champions League qualifying spots, it is a season everyone in Liverpool wants to bounce back from, not least of all their defensive linchpin Virgil van Dijk.

"Obviously it has been a very disappointing season, and it's all our fault. But this season, we start from scratch," said the Dutch defender during a fan meet-and-greet session organised by Carlsberg at the Ritz Carlton hotel.

"The only way to make it right for the fans is to do it from day one. We start our season with a very tough away game at Chelsea, but there is no doubt on our minds that we want to win it, and win as many matches as possible in the long season ahead."

His clubmates at the fan event, forward Diogo Jota and left-back Kostas Tsimikas, nodded in agreement. While they smiled and posed for photos with star-struck fans for almost an hour on Saturday afternoon, it was all business for them in the evening, as they were put through an energy-sapping open training session in front of the fans at National Stadium.

Other contenders have not stopped improving: Klopp

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, on the other hand, said that while he is pleased that his charges came into the pre-season with added motivation to put things right, it does not mean that other EPL clubs are going to be immediately afraid of playing the Reds.

"Teams who were better than us last season, they haven't stopped trying to improve their squad," the German said during a media conference before the training session.

"Arsenal will be trying to take the next step, Manchester United and Newcastle too. Manchester City will always be there, and even Brighton will be on fire again next season. What we can do now is to create a positive environment so that we can be among these teams next season.

"The players were already trying to put things right at the end of last season. We tried to make a run, but came up just short in fifth position. That in itself gave me information that may be helpful for the next season."

While the Reds have signed two highly-promising midfielders in Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai to boost the squad, they have been rocked by the departure of long-time captain Jordan Henderson, who joined Saudi Arabian side Al-Ettifaq on a lucrative contract earlier this week.

Klopp acknowledged that the off-season departures of Henderson, vice-captain James Milner, long-time forward Roberto Firmino as well as midfielders Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain are significant changes. However, he has urged his team to embrace the changes and use them positively.

"I didn't expect Jordan's departure a few weeks ago. Now he is gone and we will miss him, but it also opens doors for other players in the position he played, even for younger players to seize the opportunity to make the next step up to the first team," he explained.

Timing for Singapore trip much better this year

Liverpool will stay and train in Singapore until Wednesday, playing two matches as part of the Singapore Festival of Football event: against fellow English side Leicester City on Sunday, and then German giants Bayern Munich on Wednesday.

This is the second year in a row that the Reds have come to Singapore during the pre-season, but Klopp believes that preparations are by far more ideal this time around, compared to last year.

"The big difference between this year and last year was that we've already had our training camp in Germany this year before we came to Singapore, which is super important," he said.

"Last year, without having gone through the training camp to work on our tactical plans, we came here and couldn't really do a lot of important work, and it wasn't really very good. This time around, it's much better.

"But we came back here because we like this place. You only really know about the size of the club when you come to places like here and see 15,000 fans watching us train."

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