Lovren: USA tour will get us ready for the big kick-off
Dejan Lovren believes Liverpool’s tour of the United States, which began on Thursday morning, will ensure he and his teammates are in the best possible condition ahead of the start of the 2016-17 campaign.
Jürgen Klopp's charges will face Chelsea at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on July 28, AC Milan on July 31 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, and then round things off by taking on AS Roma on August 2 at Busch Stadium as they travel the States.
Lovren and his Reds colleagues warmed up for their trip to the USA with a fourth successive pre-season victory, as they defeated Huddersfield Town 2-0 on Wednesday night before jetting out in the early hours.
After getting the chance to lift some silverware when he was presented with the Bill Shankly Trophy, Liverpool’s No.6 explained how the focus now turns to getting ready for the start of the Premier League season and an opener against Arsenal on August 14.
“It was nice and to get a trophy is always really nice but it’s just a friendly game and we need to improve step by step and get more preparation,” Lovren told Liverpoolfc.com.
“It’s a tough time for us, the legs are tired but it’s good for us. So we are now looking forward to going to America and playing some tough games out there, so we will see where we are.
“We have less than a month before our first game [against Arsenal] so we have a lot of time to train hard - we are ready for that.”
The Croatian insisted Klopp’s men can take many positives from their four outings against Tranmere Rovers, Fleetwood Town, Wigan Athletic and Huddersfield Town, not least a fourth straight clean sheet.
He added: “We have created a lot of chances in these games and in this game [against Huddersfield]. We had some chances so it could have been more than 2-0, but we won, kept another clean sheet, and that is good.”
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