Brendan Rodgers claims Liverpool’s exhausting pre-season tour can unify the team as they attempt to reward the faith of their Asian and Australian supporters.
After beating a Thai Premier League XI earlier this week, the Reds have arrived in Queensland for a friendly against Brisbane Roar on Friday night.
Their next destination is South Australia, where they will face Adelaide United at the Adelaide Oval on Monday.
After that it’s back to Southeast Asia for a game against a Malaysia All Stars XI in Kuala Lumpur.
It’s doubtful such a hectic travel schedule is the ideal preparation for a tough Premier League season, but Rodgers is doing his best to put a positive spin on the commercially-driven program.
“When you work for Liverpool it means you are a member of one of the iconic football clubs in the world, so you don’t just have supporters in England, you have supporters right throughout the world and it’s our duty when we come to these countries to thank and play in front of our supporters globally,” he told reporters in Bangkok.
“… Brisbane – that’s another different experience but a great experience. In Melbourne a few years ago we played in front of nearly 100,000 people.
“There’s not too many clubs that have that pull and that support, so for us of course it is a demanding pre-season with lots of travel but we are looking to maximise what we can out of each country, each training session and each game, and come the beginning of the season we’ll be in a really good footballing condition to start the season.
“There’s always positives and negatives when you travel so far. I think for us we really focus on the positives. It’s two weeks away, it’s a long time together and you really get to know one another on the field and off the field during this tour, so we are really focused on that.
“Like I say it’s not a chore to travel to … Australia … these are countries that really support us on a global stage and we are very honoured to travel to these countries.”
Defender Mamadou Sakho, a goal-scorer in the win over Thai opposition, is also embracing the flying visits to the Anfield outfit’s far-flung outposts.
“This is part of our preparation for the season and we are looking forward to going to Australia and going to Brisbane and Adelaide,” he said.
“I hope we can carry on with our good work we have done so far during the pre-season and get the same result in our next game.”
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) July 15, 2015