Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has said that Emre Can will continue improving his fitness and will not be available to start against Chelsea on Friday night.
Can returned late to preseason training after playing in the latter stages of Euro 2016 with Germany, and it is clear he has a lot of catching up to do to get his place back in the first team. Speaking at his pre-match press conference at Melwood, he was quoted by the club’s official website as saying:
“Emre is not injured any more, which is good, but now he needs to train and that’s how it is. He had a difficult pre-season with coming back later than most of the other players then a little injury here and a little problem there. Until now, it was not the best moment but he is still a wonderful player and now we have to make him fit. That’s what we will do with him, that’s what we will do with Mama [Sakho] and if you want, with Joe Gomez and all the others.”
As Klopp mentions, Can has picked up a number of niggling injuries during preseason which have hampered his fitness progress but he will almost certainly have to push himself in order to meet the high standards that both Klopp and his new fitness coach Andreas Kornmayer set in order to employ the high intensity pressing they require from all of their players. Kornmayer is known for triple day sessions and this season’s pre-season training was described by Daniel Sturridge as the hardest he had ever gone through.
