Never mind all the summer signings that Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has made, but just watching the Reds on their pre-season tour of Australia and Asia it has to be said that it was all about marketing rather than getting the players up to speed for the season ahead.
Be that as it may, Liverpool still had an opportunity to provide the team with some stiff opposition before the opening game of the season, yet what do they go and do? They arrange games with Helsinki and Swindon Town, hardly two teams that will prepare them to avoid the disaster they suffered at the end of last season losing 6-1 to Mark Hughes Stoke City, the very same team they face again when they kick of the start to the new season on Sunday August 9th at the Britannia Stadium.
All the medical staff and sports boffins will of course be testing the players fitness, and while that is all well and good to see if you can keep running for 90 minutes, it forgets to add into the equation all the kicks you are going to suffer and elbows to the head you will receive when you go up against a physical side such as Stoke, a team that gets their point by bullying their opposition rather than trying to outplay them.
Of what we have seen so far from the Reds tour Danny Ings looks like he has a point to prove, with Nathaniel Clyne looking as though he has been at Anfield for years, and as for Jordan Ibe, all we have to say about him is who needs Raheem Sterling?
The main question for us though is Liverpool really ready, or are they once more going to start off slow? Last season was bad enough, and none of us want to see the fans asking for Rodgers head once November rolls around, but should the results not be there we could be in for a repeat of 2014 all over again.
