Who is involved in Arne Slot’s first pre-season tour?
Getting to know a new squad in a summer when most senior players have been away on international duty could be “a disadvantage but not an excuse” according to Liverpool head coach Arne Slot. And the reality of his first pre-season was laid bare by the 28-man squad that headed out for a three-game tour of the US on Tuesday.
The squad looked heavier on Carabao Cup winners’ medals than Premier League experience. The absentee list reads: Alisson, Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joe Gomez, Ibrahima Konaté, Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch, Darwin Núñez, Luis Díaz, Cody Gakpo and Diogo Jota.
Some will join up later in the tour but this is very much an opportunity for youngsters to impress Liverpool’s new head coach. Jayden Danns and Bobby Clark were left behind, however, as they recover from back problems. “Ideally I would have started in a season when there were no Euros and no Copa América,” admitted Slot. “But that’s not the situation and you have to take it the way it is.”
The first glimpse of Slot’s style in Liverpool colours
Slot may be short on established personnel for a tour that starts against Real Betis in Pittsburgh on Friday, before moving on to Philadelphia to play Arsenal next Wednesday and Manchester United in Columbia, South Carolina on Saturday week, but it will offer a first look at the style that attracted the club’s new football hierarchy.
There will be similarities with Jürgen Klopp’s approach but, as the Dutch coach said at his official unveiling, he is “not a clone of Jürgen”. Expect Liverpool’s full-backs to have different roles and players to have the freedom to switch positions when the team is in possession. “Sometimes it’s a 4-2-3-1, sometimes it’s a 4-1-4-1, sometimes we build up with three,” said Slot when outlining his tactics last month. “There is a lot of freedom when we have the ball but, if we don’t have the ball, then there’s not so much freedom. Then we want to be really aggressive and there’s only one way and that’s everybody mostly keeps his position.”
The return of Stefan Bajcetic
Bajcetic will be hoping a new start at Liverpool applies not only to Slot. The gifted midfielder has endured a terrible time with injuries since making an impressive breakthrough two seasons ago. He was restricted to just one start last term — the Europa League group game in Linz — having recovered from a groin issue that cost him the final months of 2022-23 only to then suffer a calf injury. Back problems, attributed to growing pains, ruled him out for another seven months.
The 19-year-old has enjoyed a full, intense pre-season so far and Liverpool are hopeful Bajcetic’s fitness problems are firmly behind him in advance of Slot’s debut campaign. Central midfield is an area where there is likely to be change under the new head coach and Bajcetic has an early chance to push his claims through a fiercely competitive field.
Time for Caoimhín Kelleher to decide
The three-match tour gives Slot a chance to assess the strength of his backup goalkeeping options with Alisson enjoying a post-Copa América holiday. Caoimhín Kelleher should be first choice in the US but whether the Republic of Ireland international will be prepared for another season as a number two after making 26 first-team appearances last season is yet to be determined. As Kelleher admitted at the end of last season: “Whether it’s here at Liverpool or somewhere else, I do feel the next step for me is to be a number one.”
Liverpool wanted to keep Adrián as experienced cover but the 37-year-old rejected their offer of a contract extension to rejoin Betis, his first professional club, on a free transfer. Adrián’s exit, and doubts over Kelleher’s future, creates an opening for Vitezslav Jaros, the 23-year-old who was part of Czech Republic’s squad at the European Championship.
Liverpool consider Jaros part of their senior goalkeeping pool after an impressive loan spell at Sturm Graz last season, where he helped the Austrian club to a league and cup double. That assessment could be examined in the US.
The lack of new faces
There is more than a month of the summer transfer window still to play out — rest those angry fingers on social media — but the absence of any new signings, coupled with so many big names missing, will understandably disappoint fans who have paid above $400 (€370) in some cases to watch Liverpool on the US tour.
Richard Hughes, Liverpool’s new sporting director, has said the club’s transfer strategy this summer will be “opportunistic”. The view is that there are no glaring holes to fill in Slot’s squad — at least not in the short term — and that last summer’s midfield overhaul addressed the big issue facing his predecessor.
But there is always space for improvement. Liverpool were interested in central defender Leny Yoro, the Real Madrid target who ended up at Manchester United instead. They were offered Anthony Gordon as Newcastle looked to balance their books before the June 30th financial deadline. The long-term futures of Alexander-Arnold, Van Dijk and Mohamed Salah have yet to be resolved, with each important asset entering the final year of their current contracts. Plenty of work to be done before the August 30th deadline.
