Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has claimed that the Community Shield tie with Arsenal will be ‘in the middle of the pre-season’, downplaying the importance of the fixture.
The formerly known Charity Shield is coming up thick-and-fast, with only 10 days until the fixture, with the UEFA Nations League set to follow that before the Premier League is to get underway.
The competition has been downplayed numerous times over the years, and with the current world climate, this year’s edition looks to be taken even less seriously.
The Premier League champions boss at least will be considering the match as part of his pre-season, but he will still expect a bold showing from his side.
He told LFCTV: “From a timing point of view, the Community Shield is in the middle of the pre-season, if you want. For us it’s not the same.
“It will be a good game, I’m pretty sure. Arsenal is a good team, so it will be a good game, but both teams will not be the finished articles.
“How can we be after two weeks training again and stuff like this? But that’s not important because both teams probably have the same situation, so it will be tough.
“The 22nd is the first friendly, 25th second friendly, 29th [is] then the Community Shield, so you see it’s a pretty tight one immediately.
“But what I want to see from the boys, that we play our football again. That’s it pretty much. And that we deal with the problems in the game in our way, that we create, that we prepare, that we are ready to defend together, that we have all the principles we worked on so long.
“You should see that we didn’t meet a week ago for the first time in our lives. So we worked together for a while, didn’t change a lot squad-wise. We want to see just our football.”
The Community Shield is usually just one week before the new campaign kicks off, but there is a break this term for the UEFA Nations League, although more eyes will be on this year’s edition with the Championship, League One and League Two usually having started before the fixture.
Will Mikel Arteta be taking the Wembley outing more seriously than his rival? Will both sides be forced to rotate following the minimal break from action?
Patrick
Beating them in the Community shield and ManU in our opening EPL match would be a great start for the season and an awesome momentum to build on.
We would have consecutively pimped up the executioners table in a roll with the heads of Lpool, City, Chelsea, Lpool again and ManU.
Is the man utd game for the opening match confirmed yet? I don’t think so. It was leaked on fantasy football and no one is certain if that would actually be next season’s fixtures.
The fixtures come out tomorrow morning, 9am, Kstix… I’ll be amazed if it is right… these ‘leaked’ fixtures aren’t usually!
I figured as much Sue. Would you prefer we played them early on in the season Sue? Considering we have injured players and I think we might not be fit so early in the season. Unless of course we do have a great transfer window.
Not sure I’d fancy a visit to Old Trafford so soon – a bogey ground of ours!! 🤪 especially as they’re given at least one penalty each game!!
Even if Man U turns out to be our “first” match it will in fact be postponed because they have have been given dispensation to start the league later due to their Europa involvement .
I guess that would go for Man City too declan.?
Yes that’s what I’ve read. I think all teams were given a 30 day break so both Manc teams will start a couple of games after the rest of the league.
I’m certain he’s going to want to win it as much as we do as it’s usually the first trophy of the season which in turn instills a winning mentality in the club and players going forward into the new season. I’d love for it to be a game where our young players get an opportunity to play in. Winning the community shield along with a great transfer window seeing the arrivals of Partey(Lord please) and Gabriel will fill us with hope for the new season. No pressure there Senor Arteta as we know you’re fit for the job. Whatever happens, we’re 100% behind the team.
Can’t wait… 10 days to go… a lot can happen in that time, Kstix!! Oh and btw I’d love to win it 😉
A whole lot Sue. Are we making announcements only on Fridays now? Because that’s the only way I can wrap my head around why we haven’t announced Auba’s contract extension yet. The Gabriel deal seemed like a done deal yesterday. The reports I’m reading today are frightening. I hope we beat Liverpool in the shield. I’ve already had a premonition of How the news headlines would go down in my head if we win. It goes “Arteta 2, klopp 0”. Or “klopp yet to get a win against Arteta’s Arsenal”. Lol
Ah those headlines would be sweeeeet, Kstix!! Always nice beating that lot 😉
How inconsiderate of them making us wait all week until Friday 😂 Maybe they’ll both be announced together… I’m not sure our hearts could take all that excitement in one go haha!!
Haha. I think we’ll manage Sue. Considering everything we’ve been through as arsenal fans. We deserve the happiness and excitement coming our way.
👍👍👍
Community shield is like Emirates cup no significance at all. Even when we won it that did not translate our season into a league title contender season. He is right win or loose we should not read too much into it. I think with right players we can have a very good season under MA, I trust him to do fabulous job but he needs to be given tool to do that. Looking forward to seeing Saliba, boy is a beast n we can have our very own Varane. The most exciting thing about this club at the moment is to see Saka, Martenelli and Saliba play in coming season.
With our record in the Charity//Community Shield, we should at least be competitive.
I just wonder what the squad will be, what new faces will be on show and what surprises there will be?
We know there should be Willian and Saliba, but what about Partey, Gabriel and, maybe, even Zaha?
The goalkeeper situation may become clearer, as could be the futures of AMN, Guendouzi, Ozil, ESR and Ceballos.
What a pre season adventure we have in store for our club!!
I don’t think Leno is anywhere near returning yet ken so it looks like Martinez will start for quite a few games.
Thanks Declan, I thought I read that he was ready for the cup final though – I was probably wrong on that.
Some will disagree but I have ALWAYS regarded the Community(previously The Charity) Shield as no more than a pre- season friendly.
To regard a one off game , before the real season even starts,as a proper trophy, is a dishonest and deliberate self fooling lie. Much the same , though not QUITE the same principle, applies to the so called World championship for clubs, another one off game and also not a real trophy, despite a piece of silverware being presented in both cases.
I get the argument that even in order to take part you need to have won either the Prem or FA CUP but both of THEMARE TROPHIES, whereas thE game between trophy winners is just a pre season game, promoted by those who wish to fool themselves into a sham trophy in their own dishonest minds.
But if you never succeeded in winning the epl or the FA Cup through series of games, you can never play in the Community shield. It is as important as winning any trophy in my opinion. Maybe not in value but in the spirit of competition it is.
The Community Shield is nothing more than a friendly with a posh name. Winning it means absolutely nothing as far as how you do in the season. It is a warm up game and its just a nice match to improve fitness. It is just a reminder to everyone who won the league and FA cup last season.
It’s worth remembering that this is an FA affiliated trophy and unlike most friendly games, is played at Wembley, attracts a huge crowd (normally) and is viewed by millions of people .
However, I tend to follow our clubs take on whether it being a recognized trophy or not – and they do not list it as such.
It is, of course, referred to in our official handbook and I see no reason why we shouldn’t take pride in being able to participate in such a game.
It proves that we have won a major trophy – city won’t participate because they only won the minor cup, while chelsea, manure and the spuds are nowhere to be seen…that makes it special!!!
We are second in the list of most successful clubs, tied with liverpool and behind manure.
Manure 21…………..9
Arsenal 15…………..7
Livepol 15…………..7
So I see our upcoming game as important for three reasons, keeping up the winning mentality, climbing above pool and trying to judge MA’s thoughts and plans for the coming season.
manure 21 wins and 9 losses etc etc
👌Fair enough reasoning, ken.
We won all the Shields of our recent FA wins. Love to see the run continue. COYG!