Liverpool Show Effects of Gruelling Pre-Season Tour in Malaysia Draw
Liverpool's pre-season tour of Asia and Australia came to an end with a pretty flat 1-1 draw with a Malaysia XI on Friday, with Brendan Rodgers' squad showing the effects of a fortnight of travelling.
The Reds' goal arrived from their most impressive player of the game, Jordon Ibe—whose thunderous left-footed shot flew past the goalkeeper into the top corner at the near post.
Ibe was one of the few to impress during what was without a doubt the most laboured performance of the four games Rodgers' side have played while on tour.
After starting the tour in the heat and extreme humidity of Bangkok, Liverpool then flew to Queensland and South Australia, where temperatures were much milder during the Australian winter. Experiencing such extremes and timezone changes isn't easy for anybody, no matter while attempting to build fitness ahead of the new season.
By the time they return to Merseyside on Saturday, over 28,000 miles will have been covered.
The Liverpool Echo's James Pearce, who accompanied the squad throughout the tour, called it "gruelling," noting that as the "players exited the Bukit Jalil National Stadium and headed for the coach, they looked ready for home."
Pearce pointed to the double training sessions the squad had been undergoing, plus all the commercial events that made for an extremely hectic schedule. "No wonder Liverpool looked so leggy against the Malaysian Selection," he wrote. "Fatigue was certainly a factor."
The players will have Sunday and Monday to recover before returning to training at Melwood on Tuesday—which will be the first time new signings Christian Benteke and Roberto Firmino will meet the squad.
By Friday, they'll be back on the road—heading to Helsinki for a game on Saturday before returning to England to bizarrely play another friendly less than 24 hours later against Swindon Town.
That will round out the Reds' pre-season, with six games played. The lack of any opposition of any real quality should perhaps be a concern.
Last summer, Liverpool played AC Milan, Olympiacos, Borussia Dortmund and Manchester City in their pre-season games. This year, it's difficult to say which is the best team they'll face. It might even be League One side Swindon.
Just as the lack of quality opposition may be concerning, so too might be the lack of rotation in the four games played.
No doubt it's a deliberate move by Rodgers and his coaching staff, but there has been far less rotation during these four games than during any pre-season tour in recent times.
Jordan Henderson and James Milner have started every game together, while Nathaniel Clyne, Martin Skrtel and Adam Lallana have been almost ever present too.
The likes of Andre Wisdom, Lazar Markovic, Joe Allen, Danny Ings and Mamadou Sakho have featured very little—Sakho in only two of the four games.
Indeed, any player who appeared in the practice match against local Malaysian side Felda United on Thursday wasn't involved in the friendly on Friday. They instead had to settle with two 30-minute halves in an open training session.
Rodgers clearly indicated his favoured personnel ahead of the new campaign, with Henderson and Milner set to become the engine room of the side, but he might be wise to ensure the likes of Allen and Lucas Leiva are fully fit and involved ahead of the new campaign.
The games against HJK Helsinki and Swindon will be the only ones for Firmino, Benteke, Philippe Coutinho and Emre Can to get fitness themselves and, in the case of the former two, build relationships with their new team-mates. Surely no player will appear in both of those games, though, coming one day apart. Who appears with whom in each game is something Rodgers will have to think carefully about.
The lineups then for those friendlies should provide a good indication of how Liverpool will line up against Stoke City on the opening day of the season on August 9.
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