FIVE-POINT PLAN

1 GO TO THE END Liverpool scored 25 of their 89 league goals in the last 15 minutes of matches last season. Hitting more than a quarter of your goals in the dying stages, often when it matters most, is a credit to Klopp’s physical and mental preparation for every game and a pretty useful habit to maintain, as is conceding just five during those periods. 2 DEFEND, DEFEND, DEFEND You have to go back to Chelsea in 2004-05 to find the last team to let in fewer goals than the Reds’ 22 last term. They kept a clean sheet in 55 per cent of league games. Even one goal almost guarantees a win, and that’s without considering Liverpool’s lethal front three – so remain stingy. 3 FIND A PLAN B Salah (27), Mané (26) and Roberto Firmino (16) scored 69 of the Reds’ 115 goals in all competitions last term – bang on 60 per cent. Divock Origi managed seven, as did penalty-taker James Milner, while Virgil van Dijk and Xherdan Shaqiri got six. There are times when the front three look tired, not least Firmino as the catalyst for the team’s high press. Klopp has given Origi a new contract; now he must trust him on the pitch, after the Belgian chipped in with a goal every 96 minutes last season. 4 THE YEAR OF THE OX It’s been 18 months since Alex Oxlade-chamberlain last started a football match. He ruptured his cruciate knee ligament in the 2017-18 Champions League semi-final against Roma, just as his form was picking up. With a full pre-season under his belt, the 25-year-old offers a dynamism to an occasionally one-paced midfield. 5 IMPROVE ON THE ROAD Yes, Liverpool beat every team in the Premier League’s bottom half home and away last season, but there’s definite room for improvement on the road against better teams. The Merseysiders won three away matches against top-half outfits in 2018-19, picking up 14 of a possible 27 points. Manchester City, meanwhile, won five times against the same opposition, picking up 17 points. On such slender margins are league titles won and lost.