On Tuesday, Liverpool’s annual preseason lactate test announced a new winner, which Jurgen Klopp dubbed the “James Milner award.”

The lactate test is a test of lactic acid levels in the blood during intense exercise. Measuring the lactate threshold helps determine how hard each player can work and when the body is capable of pushing the intensity of the game to its maximum.

This is the ultimate test of that body.

The first day of training when the players arrived at Liverpool can be visualized through Robertson’s story: “After I finished the test, I tried to pretend I was fine to go home but I couldn’t make it in time, I vomited a lot. That to Klopp’s ear The next day, he met me and called me ‘weak kid’!”

It was up to the new players to step up in Milner’s absence, who had won the fitness test each of his eight seasons at the club.

On Saturday, a smaller number of players participated in the first lactate test, with Joe Gomez leading the way. Darwin Nunez also performed admirably.

But on Tuesday, with 14 senior players back, all eyes were on who would step up.

 

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Divided into two groups, the first round of seven players saw Mo Salah, Jordan Henderson, and rookie Conor Bradley as the last three to remain; Salah ultimately outlasted the others.

As Salah finished, Klopp exclaimed, “The James Milner award goes to…!”

This shouldn’t have surprised anyone given how committed the Egyptian was to being in shape.

Dominik Szoboszlai, a recent addition, beat out fellow newcomers Alexis Mac Allister, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Cody Gakpo, Luis Diaz, and Diogo Jota to win the other group of six senior players.

In that group, Diaz and Gakpo placed second and third, respectively, behind the Reds’ new No. 8.

Szoboszlai also seems to be a wonderful fit for Jurgen Klopp’s coaching style, saying after the game: “[It was] incredibly hard, but really nice. “I enjoy running!”

Whether or whether that was a little bit of sarcasm, the new signing certainly made an impression on his first outing, and Jurgen will have been delighted to hear those words!

On Wednesday, Mac Allister and Szoboszlai met their new teammates and coaching staff for the first time when Liverpool had all of their players back at the AXA Training Center.

Before traveling to Germany on Saturday for the preseason training camp in the Black Forest, the team will spend the remainder of the week at Kirkby.

The Reds play Karlsruher in their first friendly the following Wednesday.