Jurgen Klopp blames pre-season defeat to Roma on "intense" USA tour

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has blamed his side's pre-season defeat to Roma on the "intense" schedule of his players during their tour of the United States.

Youngster Sheyi Ojo managed to get on the scoresheet in St Louis, but goals from Edin Dzeko and Mohamed Salah gave Roma a 2-1 victory at the Busch Stadium.

The match was Liverpool's third in the US following friendlies with Chelsea and AC Milan, but they will now return to England for an International Champions Cup match against Barcelona at Wembley.

"Sometimes as a manager you have to accept things and tonight I can accept it because I know why," Goal.com quotes Klopp as saying. "Thirteen days in the USA and the hardest circumstances tonight at the end, after a lot of intensive sessions and then this wet heat. It was not too easy.

"We had a lot of games in the last few weeks and the opponent had no games in the last two weeks. We knew all that before the game, so it's hard. But of course we have to do better in games like this.

"It was really difficult for my team to play tonight after this intense time. Now we have finished, hopefully a safe trip, go home to England and build on the base we made here."

The Reds' opening Premier League game will be against Arsenal at the Emirates on August 14.