Section:GDN 1N PaGe:40 Edition Date:190730 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 29/7/2019 19:56 cYanmaGentaYellowb
- The Guardian Tuesday 30 July 2019
(^40) Sport
Football
Klopp laments
squad shortfall
as Liverpool
prepare for City
Michael Walker
Jürgen Klopp has played down the sig-
nifi cance of Liverpool’s Community
Shield match against Manchester City
on Sunday, saying it would be “com-
pletely mad” to deduce how the season
will unfold from the Wembley result.
But Klopp also said Liverpool will
need to defend better than they have
on occasion in pre-season if they are not
to suff er a “knock” to their confi dence.
Speaking yesterday after the 3-0
defeat against Napoli at Murrayfi eld
on Sunday, and before fl ying to a train-
ing camp in France, Klopp emphasised
the absence of leading players over the
past few weeks and how pleased he
will be to see Alisson , Mo Salah and
Roberto Firmino for the fi rst time this
season when they meet in Évian.
Naby Keïta and Xherdan Shaqiri are
back in training after injury but Klopp
will not have Sadio Mané until next
Monday. Mané played in the Africa Cup
of Nations fi nal for Senegal 11 days ago.
Only then, four days before the Pre-
mier League opener against Norwich
on Friday week, will Klopp have his
full squad. It is a situation which adds
fuel to his player burn out argument.
“I don’t want to fi nd excuses before
we play City ,” Klopp said, “but we had
a completely diff erent pre-season.
We played without six players and to
say this must be the statement for us
would be completely mad.”
Disconcerted to discover the general
view of the Community Shield is as a
“curtain-raiser” to the season, Klopp
said: “It’s a good test of the things that
are there [in place] because, if you
don’t defend well against City, we can
get a proper knock.”
Liverpool conceded only 22 goals
last season, one fewer than City, so he
will not be anticipating frailty.
Klopp won the Germany Super Cup
in 2013 and 2014 – each time against
Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich – but
he was caustic about the importance of
those games, too: “In Germany I won
it twice but nobody mentions it. The
Super Cup – you win it, nobody cares;
you lose it and some care.” Reaction to
the result on Sunday could be similar.
Eyes on
the prize
England striker
Ellen White
takes part in her
fi rst training
session as a
Manchester
City player as
she prepares
for the start of
the WSL season
in September.
White, who
scored six times
at the World
Cup to fi nish as
joint top scorer,
joined City from
Birmingham at
the end of last
season and is in
contention to
face Manchester
United in the
opening match
TOM FLATHERS/
MANCHESTER CITY FC
VIA GETTY IMAGES
Bale fears Real freeze after route
to China is blocked by Pérez
Jamie Jackson
Gareth Bale sees no way out of
Real Madrid after the collapse of his
move to China , with the forward
concluding that Florentino Pérez, the
president, could not care less that his
manager, Zinedine Zidane, does not
want to play the Welshman.
Bale had appeared to be closing on
a move to Jiangsu Suning , yet three
days before the Chinese Super League’s
transfer window clos es tomorrow ,
Pérez decided against the move and
Bale believes it is dead. This has left
the player at odds with Pérez and he
is understood to hav e no interest in
a move to another club in Europe,
permanently or on loan.
The 30-year-old faces a bleak
future at Real and believes he has
little prospect of being selected, given
Zidane’s recent pronouncements that
he want s Bale to leave.
Bale was not included in the
squad for the Audi Cup yester day,
with reports he had asked to be
omitted because he is “not in the
right mental state” to play despite
having featured in the club’s last two
pre-season friendlies as a substitute.
Real play his former club Tottenham
in Munich to day.
Bale’s agent, Jonathan Barnett, has
dismissed reports in the Spanish media
over the weekend that the player’s
family stopped the deal, telling Sky
Sports News that Bale’s family were
ready to leave Madrid.
On Sunday Barnett told the French
publication Le Journal du Dimanche:
“It’s simple. Zidane doesn’t like Gareth.
There’s no relationship between them.
There never has been.”
▲ Gareth Bale’s options are limited
because of his high wages in Spain
Real re l eased a statement yester-
day which confi rmed Bale had not
trained with the main group. They
later announced their Germany-bound
squad and Bale’s name was missing
from the 24-player list for the tour-
nament, which also features Bayern
Munich and Fenerbahce.
Jiangsu have signed the Croatia
striker Ivan Santini from Anderlecht,
leaving them with fi ve foreign players.
Chinese Super League rules allow four
overseas-born players in a squad and
the Italian defender Gabriel Paletta is
expected to depart soon.
Spurs have confi rmed the England
full -back Danny Rose will be part of
their Audi Cup squad, having been
left out for their tour to Asia in order
“to explore prospective opportunities
with other clubs”.
Rose, who was linked with moves
to Paris Saint-Germain and Newcastle,
has two years left on his contract and
is valued at £25m by Spurs but the
defender could be reintegrated into
Maurico Pochettino’s squad as they
prepare for their fi rst match of the Pre-
mier League season against Aston Villa
a week on Saturday.
Barkley set to ‘step up’ and help
fi ll the Hazard void at Chelsea
Ross Barkley says he is ready to step
up and help fi ll the gap at Chelsea
left by Eden Hazard’s departure for
Real Madrid. Hazard was Chelsea’s
top scorer and supplier of assists in
the Premier League last season, with
16 and 15 respectively. Barkley, who
scored three times and set up fi ve goals
in 27 league matches, 14 of which were
as a substitute, accepts he and others
must ensure Hazard is not missed.
“You have to fi ll in,” the midfi elder
said. “Everyone in the squad under-
stands he was a great player but he
is gone. He has new challenges now
and we have to replace his goals and
create the chances. We have that much
quality in the squad we will all step up
to the plate.”
Barkley scored a stunning free-
kick in Sunday’s friendly at Reading ,
having also found the net in a win over
Frank Lampard ha s changed
Barkley’s role, with greater emphasis
on getting into the box and being
“hungry for goals” too. “I have been
playing a bit further forward, to think
like a striker, especially as a No 10, but
try to help out defensively and work
hard off the ball.”
Barkley is enjoying playing under
Lampard who, he said, had the squad
“doing double sessions all the time”.
“He is one of my idols as a kid. I was
always watching Match of the Day ; you
always saw him every week scoring
goals. He’s got all the respect from the
players for the player he was and the
person he is.” Guardian sport
Barcelona in Japan, and was forthright
when asked whether he was ready to
take responsibility. “Yes, of course,”
he said. “Last season when Eden
wasn’t playing we still won games,
we still created chances. We know he
is an exceptional player but we have
exceptional players in the squad.
“We have young ones that will step
up and produce the goods as well. We
have Callum [Hudson-Odoi] coming
back from injury and we have signed
Christian Pulisic. We have wingers
who can create from tight positions,
players who can shoot from distance
and strikers – young and experienced
- who are hungry for goals.”
▲ Jürgen Klopp says Liverpool must
improve defence for their confi denceForward omitted from Spurs
reunion while club and Wales
international are at oddsРЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS