Liverpool lost 1-0 against Preston North End on Friday in a behind-closed-doors friendly fixture.
Arne Slot was able to run the rule over some of his players for the first time in a semi-competitive environment with Mohamed Salah and Harvey Elliott among those involved.
The Liverpool team in the first half read: Jaros, Bradley, Van den Berg, Quansah, Tsimikas, Jones, Elliott, Szoboszlai (Endo, 33), Doak, Salah, Carvalho. And the Liverpool XI in the second half was: Davies, Stephenson, Nallo, Phillips, Chambers (Beck, 75), Endo (Nyoni, 75), Bajcetic, Morton, McConnell, Koumas (Blair, 75), Gordon.
It will be some time before Slot can work with his full roster . The likes of Trent Alexander-Arnold and Alexis Mac Allister could still be more than a fortnight away from coming back from their holidays having reached the finals of Euro 2024 and Copa America respectively.
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The Reds will head to the United States next to take on Real Betis, Arsenal and Manchester United. Here's what Liverpool.com noticed from the game at the AXA Training Centre.
Szoboszlai involved but no Robertson
Both Dominik Szoboszlai and Andy Robertson returned to training this week after their Euro 2024 exertions. Hungary and Scotland were knocked out in the group phase.
Only Szoboszlai was involved in this friendly, though. Kostas Tsimikas , Luke Chambers and Owen Beck played left-back with Robertson left out. That doesn't mean he is injured: he could simply have just been working elsewhere on his pre-season fitness.
Young talents step up
Among the young starlets to get a chance here were Amara Nallo (a center-back signed from West Ham United last summer) and Trey Nyoni (a really talented young midfield player snapped up from Leicester City around 12 months ago). Harvey Blair, who made his senior debut in 2021 but hasn't been seen at that level since, was also involved.
Kaide Gordon and Ben Doak will be vying for minutes (and could both perhaps benefit from a loan spell next season now they are far too good for U21s soccer). They both played, as did the likes of Lewis Koumas and Tyler Morton .
Bajcetic returning to full sharpness
If Stefan Bajcetic can get back to the level that he was at before he spent almost the entirety of last season on the sidelines, Liverpool will have a huge talent on its hands again. There is a place up for grabs at the base of Slot's midfield department and the Spanish teen is certainly a contender to nail the place down as his own. Bajcetic played half a game here as he continues to step up his full return.
Salah takes even more senior role
With Virgil van Dijk , Alexander-Arnold and several other senior players still missing, Salah was the most experienced player involved by some distance. The Egyptian is showing no signs of slowing down: even though he is now 32 and only has a year left on his existing deal, he remains a top player and a crucial part of the Reds' attack.
This week, Salah shone in the new six-minute race test (6MRT) favored by the Liverpool physical performance staff, according to The Athletic . In the pre-season drill, players are required to cover as much ground as possible during six minutes of running around a 400 meter running track. Salah knocked Sepp van den Berg , another to be involved in this game, off the top of the leaderboard.
Carvalho and Van den Berg auditions
As well as Van den Berg, Fabio Carvalho is another who impressed on loan last season. The Dutch center-back has already expressed a desire to move on and find regular minutes elsewhere. In the case of Carvalho, however, the ex-Fulham starlet needs to work out what his best position is before a concrete decision on his Anfield future can be taken.
Carvalho is talented but he isn't quite a midfielder nor a forward in the 4-3-3 system that Liverpool usually uses. Even if Slot wanted to mix things up and play with a 'proper' number 10 at times, there are other options that would be more likely to be used there than the Portuguese youth international. Carvalho will need to take every chance he gets - and this was the first one.
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