The importance for Klopp of the FA Community Shield against Manchester City

The German manager is preparing for another game against Manchester City, this time for the FA Community Shield, and although it is his first official test with the new team following the departure of Sadio Mane and the arrival of players such as Darwin Nunez, the Reds boss is not shy of giving his direct opinion on the importance of this cup for Liverpool.

For Klopp, this game at the King Power Stadium is important, but, according to his own words, it is given importance depending on the result, because if you win it, it is a very important competition, but if you lose it, it loses importance. Liverpool are coming off the back of a defeat in their penultimate friendly in Austria, against RB Salzburg, which cast doubt on the changes made by the manager, not that this is a cause for a loss of confidence among the club's supporters, but it is a concern given the lack of goals in some games. 

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Klopp's words

“The situation is that it’s a very important game, but the situation is that we still have to prepare a season, so we cannot ignore that. So we played last night against Salzburg, we lost 1-0, we trained the day before twice, so pretty intense, that’s what we have to do. I cannot ignore the fact that after this important game is a season coming up. So we have to extend our pre-season, if you want, into the season.”

“We play on Saturday against City and we play on Sunday a pre-season test game, whatever, against Strasbourg. Then we play Fulham and the next day we play another game, just that we can extend our pre-season, that’s what we have to do. Because from mid-August on, I think we play every three days again, so there’s no time for training anymore. So we try to do the right things but, of course, then the schedule is always a challenge to deal with and that’s how it is – not the first time, it’s always like this.”

“The game on Saturday, will it show a lot about the season? I expect two good teams. I saw last night, even when we lost, especially in the second half, I saw us in a really good shape. I hope that we can bring that on the pitch on Saturday as well. But, of course, it will be a challenge just to play now 90 minutes. I’m not sure how the weather in England is but it can be hot as well, so that all comes then together. We will see. But if you win it, it’s a very important competition. If you lose it, then it becomes lesser important.”