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Jurgen Klopp has admitted he will have to trim Liverpool’s squad ahead of the new season.

But the Reds boss has promised ‘The Liverpool Country’ that the club has secured some good new signings for 2016-17.

Klopp was satisfied after watching his side begin their pre-season friendly programme with a narrow win at Tranmere on Friday night.

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% 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!”

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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.

“Danny, with his qualities, will score goals in the future,” Klopp added. “It’s a special day today, but there will be more.

“After this year, he should not put too much pressure on himself. He should enjoy the game and enjoy getting fit. He needs to get fit after a long term injury. You need a long period to get back to 100% shape after such an 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.”