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maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 25 JULY 2018 20 FOOTBALL SPORTS OLYMPICS American Lochte banned 14 months for anti-doping violation LIVERPOOL will feel the weight of increased expecta- tion to deliver silverware this season after making encour- aging forays into the trans- fer market, manager Juergen Klopp said. The German is about to un- dertake his third full season in charge but despite the pro- gress since he took over in 2015, he is yet to win his first trophy with the club. "You're right and people will say that it is the next step. We need to be ready for that," Klopp told reporters in New York, where Liverpool were continuing their pre- season tour. "I know about the expecta- tions and that's completely normal. First of all we have to play the football that gives us an opportunity to win some- thing. We cannot talk about winning something before we start the season." The last of Liverpool's 18 domestic league titles was won in the 1989-90 season, while the club's last ma- jor trophy was the 2011-12 League Cup. Klopp took Liverpool to three finals, but lost the 2016 League Cup to Manchester City on penalties, the 2016 Europa League title to Sevilla 3-1 and the 2018 Champions League final to Real Madrid by the same scoreline. Liverpool ended the Pre- mier League season fourth, 25 points behind winners City, and the squad's lack of depth was exposed as the campaign played out. The German has made four signings since, adding goalkeeper Alisson from AS Roma, midfielder Naby Keita from RB Leipzig, defensive midfielder Fabinho from Monaco and winger Xherdan Shaqiri from Stoke City. Klopp hopes the signings will help the squad better cope with the intense style of play he demands and that his team can improve on last season's record of 12 Premier League draws. "It's not just that we have to be more consistent, we have to create circumstances where we can be more con- sistent," the 51-year-old added. "Nobody is consistent with 11 players. What we are working on is the depth of the squad because you need it. "We expect more from our- selves. We will go again for the championship and each kind of cup, but that does not mean I can sit here and we will get it. We have the high- est ambitions, 100 percent." Liverpool today, contin- ue their pre-season against Manchester City in the Inter- national Champions Cup in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Pressure on Liverpool to deliver trophies, says Klopp SIXTIME Olympic gold medallist swimmer Ryan Lochte has been suspended for 14 months for receiving an intravenous infusion of a permitted substance without a therapeutic use exemption, the US anti-doping agency (USADA) said on Monday. Lochte, who was expected to compete at this week's national championships in California, posted a photo of himself on social media in May that depicted himself receiving the infusion, which triggered the USADA investi- gation. USADA said in a statement that Lochte was not using a banned substance but that it prohibits such infusions or injections in excess of 100 mL within a 12-hour period unless received in the course of hospital treatment, surgi- cal procedures or clinical di- agnostic investigations. The 33-year-old's period of ineligibility began on May 24, the date of the infusion, and will keep him from compet- ing in Japan next month at the Pan Pacific Champion- ships and at the world cham- pionships in South Korea next July. Lochte, a 12-time Olympic medallist who made head- lines in 2016 over a tale about being robbed and held at gunpoint after a party during the Rio Games which he later admitted was "over-exagger- ated", fully cooperated with the investigation. The swimmer, who won gold in the 4x200 metres freestyle relay in Brazil, missed last year's world championships while serving a 10-month ban handed down by the United States Olympic Committee for his part in the Rio scandal. Lochte, speaking at a news conference shortly after the USADA announcement, was quoted as saying by the web- site SwimSwam that he would not let his latest setback keep him from working toward his goal of earning a spot at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. "I wasn't taking anything illegal," said Lochte. "Every- thing was legal. You can get it at CVS, Walgreens, but there are rules, and you have to obey them... Don't worry. I'm not giving up. I'm going to keep going. "It's devastating to my fam- ily about this because I defi- nitely made myself a better person after Rio, and I was back in training. "I was feeling good. I was swimming fast. My son being born. Everything was hap- pening. Everything was per- fect, and then this happened. And it's devastating." USA Swimming did not im- mediately respond to a re- quest for comment.