[Mhiz Rebecca]

Jurgen Klopp admits Liverpool's squad needs trimming
Jurgen Klopp wants to trim his squad down to size before the new
season.
The Liverpool boss has secured some good signings this summer and watched his side begin their pre-season friendly programme with anarrow win at Tranmere on Friday night.
But there will be departures in the weeks ahead as he looks to reduce numbers, report the Liverpool Echo.
The German used 22 players at Prenton Park, with Mario Balotelli and Jordon Ibe notable omissions from the matchday squad.
Both are set to leave – Liverpool have accepted a £15m bid from
Bournemouth for Ibe, and are desperate to move Balotelli on – as
Klopp undergoes a clearout at Anfield.
Having already seen Kolo Toure, Jose Enrique, Jerome Sinclair and
Jordan Rossiter leave, the likes of Christian Benteke, Luis Alberto,
Sergi Canos, Joe Allen, Martin Skrtel and Adam Bogdan could all
follow.
Doubts also remain over the futures of Lazar Markovic and Andre
Wisdom, both of whom featured at Tranmere.
Asked about his squad, Klopp said: “All the players who came back
from loans are in the squad for the moment, but we have to see.
“My job is to give them the best training that I can, and at the end
we have to make decisions. We have 38 players at the moment, and
that is 100 per cent too much!
“We have to take some decisions, but you can be sure that if a team
takes a player from us, they will have had two or three weeks of
really hard and intensive training in their legs, and are as fit as they
possibly can be.”
Liverpool have added four new faces to their squad for the new
campaign. Three of them – Loris Karius, Joel Matip and Sadio
Mane – played 45 minutes against Tranmere, while Marko Grujic is
likely to make his first appearance at Fleetwood Town on
Wednesday night.
“Loris didn’t have much to do, but that’s how it is,” Klopp said.
“He’s a good goalkeeper and that’s why we made the transfer.
“ Joel Matip had a little surgery during the break. He had a screw in
his ankle, which they had to take out. There was a little bit of
infection in that and you could see after only two weeks of training
that, in the first half, he couldn’t jump. He lost one or two headers,
but that’s OK, it’s pre-season and you have to watch it. You work
on it, ignore it, whatever.
“And obviously Sadio was the most impressive player from the first
half of the new players. He had a really good link up with Roberto
Firmino which was good to see. He is a good transfer.
“I think you can tell the whole Liverpool country - as Mama would
say! - that it looks like we have a few good new transfers!”
Klopp was also pleased with the form of Danny Ings, who grabbed
the winning goal, and who will be desperate to impress having
missed most of last season through injury.
“He knows that, and we will work together with him to do that. But
for today it was cool, he scored a nice goal and had another
chance. I think he will be really happy – except for the black eye! -
and I am fine for the moment.
“But I know for Danny and all the other players that we have a
really long way to go and we have to use the time well.”

[Mhiz Rebecca]

Liverpool have reportedly ended their pursuit of Bayern Munich
midfielder Mario Gotze .
Gotze has been repeatedly linked with a move to Anfield this summer
in order to reunite with Jurgen Klopp, who managed the German
during his time at Borussia Dortmund .
However, the Echo reports that Klopp has now rejected the chance to
sign the 24-year-old, leaving him to choose between Tottenham
Hotspur and Dortmund.
Gotze's representatives have reportedly met with Spurs on a number
of occasions, with the lure of regular football at a Champions League
club thought to appeal to the World Cup winner.
Gotze has scored 36 goals in 114 appearances during a three-year
stint with Bayern.

[Mhiz Rebecca]

Liverpool officials have been left baffled by recent reports
suggesting that Phillipe Coutinho had changed agents and that his
new representative Kia Joorabchian was looking to move him away
from Anfield.
According to Goal, Kia Joorabchian, who is not actually a licensed
agent, ‘recently took the career’ of Coutinho and his primary aim
was to get the play-maker out of Anfield, with Barcelona and Paris
Saint Germain rumoured to be interested.
However, the Liverpool Echo states that Joorabchian has been the
little Brazilian's representative for the past eighteen months and
that the last we heard from the British businessman he stated that
Coutinho was “extremely happy” with the Reds.
The Brazillian play-maker has consistently been linked with moves
away from Anfield during his time at the Copa América this
summer and two of his international team-mates, Dani Alves and
Filipe Luis, have urged Coutinho to make the move to a team that
can offer him Champions League football.
Liverpool are unable to offer any form of European football next
season having finished eighth in the league and having lost in the
Capital One Cup final and Europa League final to Manchester City
and Sevilla respectively.
Coutinho, 24, has been on holiday for the past three weeks
following Brazil's shock group stage exit at the Copa América. The
play-maker had scored the first hat-trick of his international career
in their 7-1 rout of Haiti, but they failed to get out of their group
following a controversial 1-0 defeat to Peru, which cost Dunga his
job.
Klopp will certainly want to ensure that the gifted attacker, whom
still has four years remaining on his contract, remains at Liverpool
and builds upon his most most clinical season in English football to
date, having scored 12 goals in all competitions last campaign.
Liverpool's Player of the Season for last year will now return to
Melwood on Monday to join up with the rest of the squad for their
preparations ahead of Wednesday night’s second pre-season
friendly against Fleetwood.