You'll have plenty to celebrate when you subscribe to the Liverpool FC newsletter Sign me up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Six weeks of blood, sweat and tears lie ahead for Liverpool’s players.

Jurgen Klopp’s squad will start to reconvene at Melwood next Saturday as pre-season training gets underway.

They will be under no illusions about the gruelling schedule that awaits them.

Klopp made it clear towards the back end of last season how much hard graft would be demanded to ensure the Reds are fit and firing for the beginning of the Premier League campaign in mid-August.

“It’s triple training sessions of course,” Klopp said. “I’m really looking forward to pre-season.”

Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now

Frustrated by the fitness levels of the squad following his arrival last October, Klopp believes it was February before he had a crop of players in the shape required to play the high intensity brand of football he demands.

The Reds boss is determined to ensure there are no such issues this time around.

He has added to his staff with a double swoop on Bayern Munich. Andreas Kornmayer is the club’s new head of fitness and conditioning and Liverpool have also brought in nutritionist Mona Nemmer.

Klopp’s stamp is all over the club’s pre-season plans.

The Reds will play no fewer than nine friendly fixtures before the serious stuff begins.

You have to go back to the summer of 2003 – when Gerard Houllier’s men went from Germany to Thailand, Hong Kong, Holland and Scotland - for the last time the club had that many warm-up fixtures.

Borussia Dortmund had a similarly packed schedule under Klopp as it’s the way he likes it. He views the friendly games as glorified training sessions and likes to pack them in.

No matter how the games are talked up elsewhere, you also won’t find the German giving two hoots about the outcome of them.

Everything will simply be geared towards that opening weekend trip to Arsenal.

“In all of the pre-season games we will play we will play out full training,” Klopp said. “So if we play our best in pre-season then I’ve done something completely wrong.

“It’s another session, it’s not about beating our opponents. I don’t care about how big the opponent is we will say nothing about the situation.”

As if to underline Klopp’s viewpoint that each friendly is akin to a training session at Melwood, Liverpool have abandoned the usual policy of getting a couple of weeks under their belt before testing themselves in a game.

The trip to Prenton Park to face Tranmere on Friday, July 8 comes just six days after the Reds’ return to Melwood.

With Anfield out of action as work on the new Main Stand is completed, Liverpool will then head for Fleetwood, Wigan and Huddersfield over the coming weeks.

On July 21 they fly off to America for a training camp in California ahead of their involvement in the International Champions Cup.

Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now

Facing Chelsea in Pasadena is followed by a clash with AC Milan in Santa Clara. Liverpool then stop off in St Louis to take on Roma before returning to the UK.

It will be a different tour to recent years. For a start, it will be shorter than usual. The Reds will be gone for just 11 days.

On their last visit to the States two years ago they played five matches in five different cities spanning the best part of three weeks.

With Klopp’s triple sessions, there will also be less time for players to carry out commercial duties.

It’s unlikely that Daniel Sturridge will be asked to make sarnies in Subway or dish out Dunkin’ Donuts this time around. The focus will be very much on hard work, not selling shirts.

Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now

Klopp took advice from USA boss Jurgen Klinsmann about where to base themselves to ensure they have the best facilities available.

“I’m really happy with the camp,” Klopp said.

“We spoke about this with all the responsible guys at the club. This is a very important training camp for us ahead of the new season.

“We will train all the time. I am only interested in training in the pre-season.”

Once back on UK soil, Liverpool play a prestigious friendly against Barcelona at Wembley on Saturday, August 6. Twenty hours later there’s the final warm-up game away to Klopp’s former club Mainz.

The Reds were looking for a European fixture having visited Helsinki last summer and Germany fitted the bill. They looked into the possibility of playing a three-way tournament with Borussia Dortmund but logistically it wasn’t possible.

Klopp is expected to take his full squad to both games that weekend but field two different line ups.

What the manager doesn’t know yet is when he will welcome Liverpool’s contingent from the Euros back into the fold.

England’s Daniel Sturridge, Jordan Henderson, Nathaniel Clyne, Adam Lallana and James Milner remain on international duty, along with Wales’ Joe Allen and Danny Ward, Germany’s Emre Can, Slovakia’s Martin Skrtel and the Belgium trio of Christian Benteke, Simon Mignolet and Divock Origi.

Klopp had indicated they would be given around three weeks off from when their nation exits the tournament.

Brazil’s early exit from the Copa America means that Philippe Coutinho will be ready but for most of pre-season Klopp will be without a host of key men.

He has already suggested he might be forced to ease them in gently when the Premier League gets underway.

“Pre-season will be very important but it would be even more important if we could have all the players together,” Klopp said. “It’s about training together and if the players aren’t there then it’s not the same but that’s how it is.

“We have to do a lot to create a base for one year. We stop pre-season in the middle of August.

“Maybe with the players who come back from the Euros it will be difficult so we might have to make their pre-season two weeks longer so that it goes into the season. That might mean they do not play at that stage or they are only allowed to play so many minutes.

“Everything you do is based around physical potential and what you create in pre-season is key to that.”