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Jurgen Klopp and Pep Lijnders talk about pre-season acting as “a trampoline” for the challenges ahead.

The problem for Liverpool last summer was that there was no bounce. A lifeless, error-strewn start that featured just four wins from their first 10 Premier League games set the tone for what followed. It was all so flat. By the time some momentum was belatedly achieved in the spring, Europa League qualification was all that could be salvaged.

There were a whole host of factors behind standards plummeting — from the physical and mental scars of the gruelling 63-game campaign in 2021-22 to a lack of transfer activity as the folly of not bolstering the midfield department was exposed. Injuries cut deep and a succession of crushing setbacks sapped morale.

Yet it all started with a problematic, truncated pre-season. Liverpool didn’t have a sufficient base to build on and lessons have been learned, with this summer’s schedule having a very different look to it.

Rewind 12 months and there were just 63 days between the Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid and the Community Shield against Manchester City, the third-shortest close season in Liverpool’s history.

For context, this time around there are 77 days between Klopp’s side finishing last season at Southampton and opening 2023-24 away to Chelsea.

A year ago, striking the right balance between players getting sufficient rest and then getting back up to speed again was difficult, especially given the early start to the 2022-23 Premier League season due to the World Cup in Qatar.

The first wave of players returned to Kirkby for fitness testing on July 4, with the internationals linking up for the flight to Thailand for the tour of Asia five days later.

That proved to be far from ideal. Klopp had just two training days with his full squad in stifling heat and humidity before they faced Manchester United in their opening friendly in front of 50,248 fans in Bangkok. He used 32 different players, including 10 teenagers, as Liverpool were routed 4-0, with Erik ten Hag’s United a week ahead in their preparations.

A Crystal Palace side missing most of their senior players were then beaten 2-0 in Singapore, but by the time Liverpool completed the 14,000-mile round trip, the injuries were stacking up. Diogo Jota and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain suffered serious hamstring pulls, while Alisson was sidelined with an abdominal problem.

The trip to Singapore was followed by an intensive training camp in Austria. Fitness issues spiralled over the following weeks to the point that, at one stage last August, Klopp had 10 members of his first-team squad in the treatment room.

“Would I do anything differently? I wouldn’t go in the first week (of pre-season) to Asia,” Klopp admitted in January. “Not because Asia is not great, but I would go to Asia in the third week or something like that. But it was not really in our hands. Is that the reason (for our poor form)? No, I don’t think so. But would it have been better to do it differently? Yes. We learn from these kinds of things.”

How Klopp would have loved a repeat of 2021 when Liverpool had a four-week pre-season camp in Austria and France due to the ongoing global travel restrictions due to the pandemic. No long-haul flights, no distractions. The benefits were there for all to see as they subsequently came within two wins of pulling off an unprecedented quadruple.

However, the manager knows that the lucrative nature of overseas tours means they have to be accommodated, especially when you have a vast global fanbase. It’s about striking the right balance between maximising commercial opportunities and enjoying the best possible preparation for the new season. Klopp liaises closely on that front with CEO Billy Hogan.

When Liverpool fly to Singapore on July 27 to play two games against Leicester City and Bayern Munich — tickets for each range from £57 ($73) to £174 ($222) — Klopp will have had his full squad together for over a fortnight. The only absentees will be the triumphant England Under-21s duo Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliott. That’s a very different scenario to last summer.

Today marks the return to Kirkby of the club’s sizeable international contingent, including new signings Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai, after an initial group of eight senior players reported back on Saturday.

Work will get underway in the familiar surroundings of the AXA Training Centre before they fly to Germany on Saturday for a training camp in the Black Forest town of Donaueschingen. Klopp took his Borussia Dortmund squad there during his time in charge of the Bundesliga club. Bayern Munich and Barcelona have also selected it for camps in recent years.

That’s where the conditioning work will step up a level with punishing double sessions. “My time,” is how Klopp describes that part of pre-season, away from prying eyes and few media commitments. He also views it as a pivotal period in terms of fostering the spirit and camaraderie he holds dear.

Expect table tennis tournaments and karaoke nights with new players and staff expected to perform. Last year, kitman Yinka Ademuyiwa stole the show with his rendition of Vanilla Ice’s Ice Ice Baby.

Liverpool’s first friendly, against Bundesliga 2 side Karlsruher SC on July 19, will mark the official opening of the German club’s new 34,000-seater stadium. The camp will close on July 24 with another game against second-tier opposition, as they face Greuther Furth behind closed doors. The players will then have a couple of days back on Merseyside prior to the week-long trip to Singapore.

Before Klopp’s Anfield reign, it used to be the case that stars would train in the morning on those tours and then be dispatched around the city to do appearances for sponsors. The sight of Jordan Henderson and Daniel Sturridge making foot-long sandwiches in a Boston branch of Subway in 2014 sticks out. That tour of the United States spanned two-and-a-half weeks and included five games in five different cities.

Klopp has since ensured things are done differently. For Singapore, Liverpool are taking six legends to attend fan events and help satisfy those commercial demands, with John Aldridge, John Barnes, Lucas Leiva, Gary McAllister, Ian Rush and Martin Skrtel travelling with the squad.

The squad will fly home immediately after the second tour game against Bayern Munich (August 2) and prepare for their final warm-up match against Bundesliga new boys Darmstadt at Preston on August 7. Anfield isn’t available to host a friendly this year due to work being completed on the £80million ($103m) Anfield Road Stand redevelopment.

By the time Liverpool step out at Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea in their Premier League opener on August 13, Klopp will have had nearly five weeks to work with most of his players.

As well as bedding in Mac Allister and Szoboszlai, it’s a crucial period for Luis Diaz, who needs a full pre-season as he tries to get back to where he was prior to the serious knee injury that wrecked 2022-23 for him. The same goes for Darwin Nunez, who has a point to prove after a mixed first season at Liverpool that saw Cody Gakpo nail down the central striker’s role. Judging by the footage released on club media channels, the Uruguayan appears to have taken his manager’s advice and improved his English over the summer.

Klopp looked like a man in urgent need of a holiday after the chaotic 4-4 draw at relegated Southampton on the final day in late May. He was just glad it was all over. “We played a bad season and we came fifth,” he said. “Imagine we were more our normal selves, which we absolutely will be next season. We will be a contender again.”

On Saturday, he strolled into the AXA Training Centre refreshed with a baseball cap on back to front and declared he was “happy to be back”.

There’s much work to be done, but it’s a clean slate and pre-season has been shaped how he wanted it to try to avoid the pitfalls of last year.

Liverpool academy analyst Ray Shearwood has left the club to join Steven Gerrard’s backroom staff at Saudi Pro League outfit Al Ettifaq.

Shearwood has accepted the opportunity to move to the Middle East following an approach from the Anfield legend.

He had worked at the Kirkby academy for nearly a decade and had been part of the under-21s set-up since November 2020.

He was the club’s under-21s analyst and a valued member of Barry Lewtas’ backroom staff.

Gerrard’s return to management was confirmed earlier this week – nine months after he was sacked by Aston Villa.

The former Liverpool captain initially turned down an offer from Al Ettifaq after travelling to Saudi for talks last month.

However, Gerrard decided to take on the challenge after discussions resumed last week.

Prior to managing Villa, Gerrard had a three-year spell in charge of Rangers, who he led to the Scottish Premiership title in 2020-21.