If pre-season teaches us anything, it’s probably to ignore the results from pre-season. In 2015/16, Liverpool won five of their six warm up games, but then took 16 matches to win five once the season proper got underway. The friendlies this summer have not gone well on the whole, so let’s see what the data from the games can tell us.

Tranmere Rovers 0-6 Liverpool

The star of the opening match was Rhian Brewster, who assisted the opener – for Nathaniel Clyne, of all people – and then scored the next two goals. The only combination to hook up for more than a single chance was Wilson to Brewster, and Liverpool mustered 19 shots, with 11 on target, in total. Joel Matip assisted Divock Origi for one of the goals, just as he had in the Reds’ previous match.

Bradford City 1-3 Liverpool

Though the scoreline was less emphatic, the shot count was more strongly in favour of Liverpool than in the opening match. Bradford only had two shots, one of which was the penalty from which they scored their goal. Simon Mignolet played 81 minutes here, but the now departed goalkeeper aside, nobody else got more than 45 minutes pitch time in either of the opening two games. And so to the USA, and the Klopp derby.

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