Arne Slot's Liverpool team has been back on Merseyside this week following the conclusion of the Reds' pre-season tour of the USA, with the players having been pictured for the first time in training .
Liverpool faces a double-header on Sunday at Anfield with matches against Sevilla and then Las Palmas lined up . It is expected that different players will start in each, with the first minutes this summer of at least eight players set to come in these fixtures.
Before that, though, there has been some time to continue to get used to the demands of new head coach Slot. The Dutchman and his backroom team have only had a short time to work with the players, though there were plenty of promising signs on show in the recent friendlies against Real Betis, Arsenal and Manchester United .
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Preparations are continuing behind the scenes in Kirkby. This is what Liverpool.com spotted from today's session.
Coffee bar catch-up
Having not seen each other for a while (before this last couple of days, at least), Cody Gakpo , Fabio Carvalho , Ibrahima Konate , Dominik Szoboszlai and Mohamed Salah were pictured catching up at the AXA Training Centre coffee bar before training began. Virgil van Dijk also joined them at one stage.
While they will spend some time together almost every day, aside from international breaks, for the next nine months or so, the players have not seen each other for a while because of international tournaments and holidays. They wasted no time in reacquainting themselves.
Alisson Becker back in action
Arriving in flip-flops and looking as chilled as ever, Alisson has been back in training for a couple of days, like the other players who returned last after their break. The Brazilian strolled in and was then spotted making a few strong saves during the session. He is one who should be able to slot straight back into the team without much of a pre-season given the position he plays.
Last players join the group
The players who returned last — Alisson, Gakpo and Van Dijk, plus Trent Alexander-Arnold , Joe Gomez , Alexis Mac Allister , Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz — have now come back into the fold. They were all involved here.
The size of the squad has increased as a result with Liverpool needing to trim it in some departments and ideally, of course, bring in a couple of reinforcements. The existing team is all back in; the question now is whether Martin Zubimendi might soon join them .
Mini-games in the sun
Liverpool's players undertook what appeared to be a warm-up drill involving a tennis ball before doing some movement work in the Kirkby sunshine, racing each other between training cones. Small-sided mini games and rondos also appeared to be part of the session, with each of those drills having been spotted a few times now under Slot and his assistant coaches.
Plenty of tactical work will be taking place as well behind the scenes as the players adjust to a slightly new style. Curtis Jones described it as being less "direct" while in the USA, while Tyler Morton called it Total Football . It's certainly exciting and will mean seeing something new at Anfield, starting this weekend where will get the first glimpse on home soil.
Darwin Nunez looks relaxed and Andy Robertson involved
Nunez was pictured grinning in the gym and the squad looked in good spirits as the new season edges closer. Slot will have had under a fortnight to work with his roster before traveling to Ipswich Town for the first match of his debut Premier League campaign and who his number nine is going to be is one of the harder choices, given the number of options.
It remains to be seen how many players who have only just returned in the last couple of days will be involved in the Ipswich game, though the big decisions will get even trickier after that. As it stands, only Andy Robertson and Bobby Clark have been recovering from injuries with everyone else appearing to be fit. Szoboszlai missed the Manchester United game only through fatigue.
Robertson, as he did in the USA, was taking part in at least some of the gym session. The Scotland captain was seen during at least part of the main training session on the grass, too, which is a promising update on his fitness status.
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