Liverpool pre-season plans taking shape as mistakes of 2022 tour avoided

Liverpool’s plans for the 2023 pre-season are taking shape, with the club acknowledging Jurgen Klopp‘s belief an early tour of Asia was a mistake.

The Reds’ preparations for the current campaign were different to normal, with Klopp and his players flying to the Far East less than a week after resuming training.

Typically, Liverpool would take in an extended programme at the AXA Training Centre, along with domestic and European friendlies, before heading on a lucrative tour.

And speaking in January, Klopp effectively admitted it was out of his control when it came to 2022, saying: “Would I do anything differently? I wouldn’t go, in the first week, to Asia.

“Not because Asia is not great, but I would go to Asia in the third week, or something like that, but it was not in really in our hands.”

According to Liverpool journalist David Lynch, writing for Football Insider, the club will return to the usual schedule in 2023.

That means time spent on Merseyside and a training camp in Europe – likely France, Germany, Austria or Switzerland – before flying out for a commercial tour.

Lynch writes that Liverpool “remain in negotiations” as to their destination, but This Is Anfield understands the plan is to travel to the United States – with talks held over a friendly in Las Vegas.

Liverpool were last in the US in 2019, when they were based on the East Coast and took on Dortmund in Notre Dame, Sevilla in Boston and Sporting CP in New York City.

That year, the Reds visited nearby Tranmere and Bradford for warmup friendlies before heading Stateside, then returning to play Napoli in Edinburgh and Lyon in Geneva.

It is likely to be a similar approach this time around, with only the timing of a training camp in Europe unclear at this stage.

On the tour of Thailand and Singapore, Lynch explains: “There is a belief at Anfield that the lengthy travel and commercial commitments relating to that initial trip to Asia cut into valuable early training time, resulting in a slew of fitness problems.”

Liverpool’s last possible game of 2022/23 remains the Champions League final, which will be held on June 10, though more likely it will be the Premier League closer on May 28.

Those not on international duty are then expected to take an extended break, before reconvening in the first week of July.