Jürgen Klopp says it is completely mad to judge Liverpool in Community Shield

Jürgen Klopp has played down the significance of Liverpool’s Community Shield match against Manchester City on Sunday, saying it would be “completely mad” to deduce how the season will unfold from Wembley’s result.

But Klopp also said Liverpool will need to defend better than they have on occasion in pre-season if they are not to suffer a “knock” to their confidence. Speaking in Edinburgh on Monday after Sunday’s 3-0 defeat by Napoli at Murrayfield, and before flying to a training camp in France, Klopp emphasised the absence of leading players over the past few weeks and how pleased he will be to see Alisson, Mo Salah and Roberto Firmino for the first time this season when they meet in Évian.

Naby Keïta and Xherdan Shaqiri are back in training after injury too but Klopp will not have Sadio Mané around until next Monday. Mané played in the Africa Cup of Nations final for Senegal 10 days ago.

Only then, four days before the Premier League opener against Norwich at Anfield on Friday week, will Klopp have his full squad together. It is a situation which adds fuel to his player burnout argument.

“I don’t want to find excuses before we play City,” Klopp said, “but we had a completely different pre-season. We played without six players and to say this must be the statement for us would be completely mad.”

Disconcerted to discover the general view of the Community Shield is as a “curtain-raiser” to the season, Klopp added: “It’s a good test of the things that are there [in place]. We have to defend in a good way, because if you don’t defend well against City, we can get a proper knock.”

Liverpool conceded only 22 goals last season, one fewer than City, so he will not be anticipating frailty.

Klopp won the Super Cup in Germany twice, in 2013 and 2014 – each time against Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich – but he was caustic about the importance of those games too: “In Germany I won it twice but nobody mentions it. The Super Cup – you win it, nobody cares; you lose it and some care.”

Reaction to could be similar. Sunday’s outcome