Welcome to your Liverpool FC morning digest for Sunday, July 9.
How Lijnders' early return to pre-season could benfit Klopp
Liverpool's Under-21s and Under-18s side reported back for their own pre-season preparations earlier this week - a week before their senior counterparts. And for some of Liverpool’s starlets, this week has presented them with a final audition to be promoted to the first team before the new season gets underway.
Assistant manager Pep Lijnders reports back for pre-season the same time as the club’s youngsters, in part to run the rule over who could be of use to Klopp and the first team. It was this time last year where the likes of Stefan Bajcetic and Bobby Clark staked their claim for senior involvement, following in the footsteps of Kaide Gordon 12 months earlier.
READ MORE: Throwing up and brutal tests - inside 'terrible day one' of Liverpool training
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“About Kaide, before pre-season we always make sure that our biggest talents start a week earlier than we start,” Lijnders told reporters when explaining Gordon’s rise and the process in September 2021. “They start with the Under-23s training and I went to the Under-23s training ground to watch and I see one player and he has fire in each moment he touched the ball.
“He passes players like they are not standing there so I call Jurgen like, 'Wow, we have a new player here'. We take all these young players to pre-season and you know you have a good player around you is when the senior players start taking care of this young player.
You can read the full story HERE.
Excitement brews over Nunez role
Liverpool fans have expressed their excitement for the upcoming season after Darwin Nunez reported for the first day of pre-season.
Footage emerged of the Uruguayan talisman sharing an embrace with manager Jurgen Klopp as the Reds players returned to the AXA Training Centre in preparation for the upcoming season.
Nunez missed the conclusion of the previous campaign with a toe injury which scuppered his involvement with Marcelo Bielsa's first international fixtures as La Celeste manager. As a result, the 24-year-old was among the first contingent to return to Merseyside ahead of their pre-season trips to Germany and southeast Asia before concluding at Preston North End's Deepdale against SV Darmstadt.
The video, posted by Liverpool, excited fans as last season's marquee signing looked in good spirits to be reuniting with the German. It was a warm reception from both sides as Nunez looks to get off to a fast start next season as the tactician mulls over the best system to fit in his four forwards.
You can read the full story HERE.
