Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp was furious with RB Salzburg defender Igance Van Der Brempt’s early tackles last night.
As reported by the Liverpool Echo, Klopp was angry with two tackles from Van Der Brempt on Fabio Carvalho inside the opening two minutes.
The Liverpool manager ‘leapt from the touchline to berate the defender’ after his second tackle resulted in a booking.
Klopp could be seen imploring Van Der Brempt to calm down after he ploughed through the back of Carvalho. Thankfully, the young Belgian did, and no further incidents occurred.
No such thing as a friendly
Salzburg have already got their league campaign underway in Austria, and it showed last night.
The Red Bull side were snapping into tackles right from the first minute of the game. With their mindset firmly in competitive mode, there was plenty of incentive with Liverpool coming to town.
At times, like the Van Der Brempt challenges, they did go in a little heavy. Another – forward Roko Simic – was another who could have done with easing off a little. But it will have done Liverpool players a lot of good at this stage of pre-season too.
It’s one thing strolling about against a team who are also trying to build fitness. It’s a wholly other thing to go toe-to-toe with a team desperate to win.
In the end, Salzburg’s superior match fitness and competitive edge just about saw them through to victory.
It will be interesting to see whether Liverpool adopt a similar kind of approach for Saturday’s Community Shield tie with Manchester City.
To all intents and purposes, it’s just another friendly. But there is silverware on the line, too. Liverpool have lost their last two appearances in the game in recent years and they’ll want to lay down a marker to City early on.
We don’t expect to see any Liverpool players flying in with unnecessary force. But stepping up the aggression slightly wouldn’t go amiss.
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