Liverpool preview: Players to miss Norwich opener, pre-season star man and what we learned

Preparations are completed, the final pre-season touches applied.

Now after a rigorous summer programme, Liverpool look towards the 2021-22 season and will be hoping it’s a lot more fruitful.

The vast majority of fans concurred that the Reds underachieved last term. After waiting 31 years for a 19th top-flight title to be added to the Anfield trophy cabinet, Jurgen Klopp’s side’s Premier League defence was tepid.

The silverware was handed back to Manchester City, while a late flurry - picking up 26 points from their final 10 games - ensured Liverpool secured a Champions League place.

Still, the Reds have had a welcome, uninterrupted pre-season and things couldn’t have gone much smoother ahead of the trip to Norwich City on Saturday.

But throughout the friendlies and foreign training camps, did we actually learn anything new? We take a look.

Key absentees

Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez are both available after returning from long-term injuries but there is still a doubt over whether they will play against Norwich.

“We don’t prepare for just one game,” Klopp noted. “We prepare for a whole season, with a lot of games in the most intense league in the world.”

The Liverpool boss confirmed that Andy Robertson (ankle) and Curtis Jones (concussion) will not be fit for the opener and he has a decision to make on captain Jordan Henderson and midfielder Thiago Alcantara.

“All our players are here at the moment and that means we have to make a selection,” Klopp explained on Friday.

“Henderson and Thiago started late to train, so their pre-season started last week. Apart from that, all the others trained for at least two weeks, some of them trained for five.

“We have no major injuries apart from Robbo, who is not available for the weekend, and Curtis. He is fit again, but it is just the protocol and we respect that.”

When did the players who’d been on international duty return?

Euro 2020 and the Copa America meant Liverpool were missing some of their key players at the beginning of pre-season.

Yet big guns such as Van Dijk, Mo Salah, Sadio Mane and Trent Alexander-Arnold have been training from the start.

Andy Robertson (Scotland) and Neco Williams ( Wales) were the first of the contingent involved at the Euros to link up with the Reds at their camp in Austria in the middle of July.

Diogo Joto and Xherdan Shaqiri were the next to follow shortly afterwards after representing Portugal and Switzerland respectively.

It wasn’t until August 2 until Jordan Henderson, Fabinho and Roberto Firmino were all back on Liverpool duty.

Henderson helped England reach the final of the Euros and featured as a substitute in the penalty shootout defeat to Italy.

Meanwhile, Fabinho and Firmino were involved for Brazil as they too suffered heartbreak in the final of the Copa America against Argentina

Summer signings

Ibrahima Konate - RB Leipzig - £36 million

Major departures

Gini Wijnaldum - Paris Saint-Germain - free transfer

Pre-season results

July 20: Wacker Innsbruck 1-1 Liverpool

July 20: VfB Stuttgart Germany 1-1 Liverpool

July 23: Mainz 05 0-1 Liverpool

July 29: Liverpool 3-4 Hertha Berlin

August 5: Liverpool 2-0 Bologna (match one)

August 5: Liverpool 1-0 Bologna (match two)

August 8: Liverpool 1-1 Athletic Bilbao

August 9: Liverpool 3-1 Osasuna

What were the real key pre-season games?

The two matches against La Liga opponents on back-to-back evenings can be regarded as the two toughest tests.

Games against Athletic Bilbao and Osasuna put the finishing touches to preparations.

A full-strength side drew 1-1 with Bilbao on Monday, although the Reds had more than enough chances to win the game.

The following evening, Liverpool cruised to a 3-1 victory over Osasuna, with Firmino stealing the headlines with a first-half double.

Both clubs finished 10th and 11th in the Spanish top flight last term and they were just the sort of tests required heading into the encounter with Premier League newcomers Norwich.

Did we actually learn anything from pre-season?

Klopp will be feeling significantly more optimistic heading into this campaign than he was 12 months ago.

Last summer’s truncated summer programme had an impact on Liverpool’s usual preparations and undoubtedly played a factor behind their disappointing campaign.

This time around, an ease in coronavirus restrictions allowed the Reds to travel to Austria and then France. Klopp’s troops underwent intense training sessions, which are required to ensure their high-octane style of football can be sustained for the entirety of the campaign.

It also gave the squad much-needed bonding time, a commodity Liverpool weren’t afforded last campaign due to Covid-19 regulations.

Friendly results were fairly straightforward, although performance progressively got better as Liverpool looked to peak at just the right time ahead of their curtain-raiser.

Who was the star man?

Kostas Tsimikas had to endure a tough first season at Anfield after arriving from Olympiacos last summer.

The Greece international racked up just six minutes of Premier League football and was firmly behind the ever-present Robertson in the pecking order.

However, Tsimikas has been catching the eye throughout pre-season and picked up an assist in Monday’s defeat of Osasuna.

With Robertson suffering ankle ligament damage and set to miss the opening few games, it hands Tsimikas a golden opportunity to show his worth.

Having spent a year on the periphery, he couldn’t have hit rich form at a better time.