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Photo by Suhaimi Abdullah/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Liverpool’s defensive game continued to look a work in progress in Wednesday’s 4-3 defeat to Bayern Munich.
Liverpool’s pre-season this summer has been shorter than many of their Premier League opponents, with manager Jürgen Klopp and his staff choosing to focus more on training sessions than live action to try to get his side up to speed.
On Wednesday, they played their fourth of five warm-ups, and while this side’s attacking promise remains clear and obvious, there are lingering worries about defensive stability and structure for a side still lacking a senior holding midfielder.
“We had a lot of really good moments where we showed what is possible,” Klopp said after his side’s 4-3 defeat to Bayern. “But in other moments—that’s how it is. It’s good because we will not be as tired during the season like we were today.
“There will obviously be moments where we feel the intensity and then you have to still make the right decisions, and for that feeling that you can get punished when you don’t do that, that’s part of the pre-season experience as well.”
On Wednesday, Liverpool didn’t always make the right decisions off the ball, and their high-risk, high-reward approach will make that inevitable at times. The key will be in finding the right balance for it to feel as if, on balance, it’s worth it.
“If you give me another hour then I will see it as a really good lesson and maybe I will be even happy that we made the mistakes today and not in ten days,” Klopp added of Wednesday’s loss. “But in the moment I still work on that.”
