Time for Reds to get back in the RACE

ONE MORE WEEK TO RELAX BEFORE THE ULTIMATE TEST OF ENDURANCE...

- By PAUL GORST Liverpool FC Correspondent

THE Liverpool squad are enjoying their final week off before reporting for pre-season duty at the AXA Training Centre.

Arne Slot and his backroom staff will welcome back their players on Monday July 7 to begin the preparations for next season, as they look to retain the Premier League title they cantered to last time out, winning it with four games to spare and eventually finishing 10 points ahead of Arsenal.

With no major international tournaments this summer, the Reds will have a virtually full contingent available to them from day one next month.

Harvey Elliott and Tyler Morton will be granted additional holiday time following their exertions for England's Under-21 squad in their successful European Championship defence in Slovakia.

But that Slot and his staff have a full complement to work with for the entirety of the summer schedule will be viewed as a major boost.

Here, the ECHO takes a closer look at what might await the players at the £50m Kirkby base and who will be out to impress more than most.

A new era at Liverpool last summer brought with it a change in direction for pre-season training and the dreaded lactate test under former boss Jurgen Klopp was swapped last time out for a similarly punishing Six-Minute Race Test (6MRT).

The endurance exam, as the name indicates, lasts for six minutes around a 400m race track with the exercise designed for those undertaking it to go as fast as possible to cover somewhere between 1.5 and 2km.

Jarell Quansah, Conor Bradley and Sepp van den Berg all took part in the run last year, which was overseen by fitness coach Dr Conall Murtagh and head of performance Ruben Peeters alongside Slot.