An analysis of Liverpool’s possible lineup for their Sunday Premier League matchup against Brentford
Arne Slot, who had the unusual privilege of traveling to Ipswich Town with his entire squad, will be hoping for a clean sheet for his Premier League debut at Anfield this coming Sunday against Brentford. Liverpool was too frequently hampered by injuries during the previous season, especially when they had up to 13 first-team players out sick at one stage in late February and early March.
It is anticipated that Slot will still have a full roster this weekend, but Joe Gomez’s absence from Saturday’s curtain-raiser away at Portman Road was illuminating.
After nine years at the club, the versatile defender is now weighing his options, and before the August 30 transfer deadline, interested parties will make their move known.
After almost ten years at Anfield, Gomez may now consider his options after coming dangerously close to making a £45 million move to Newcastle United when Anthony Gordon’s transfer was being discussed in late June. Although he is the player with the longest tenure with the club, his absence against Ipswich suggested uncertainty in the days ahead.
After replacing Ibrahima Konate with Jarell Quansah at the half of Saturday’s 2-0 victory, Slot will have another intriguing subplot to watch.
The Reds head coach discussed the tactical choice by saying, “We lost far too many duels, but we didn’t lose the ball too much.” Three yellow cards were given to them (Ipswich) as a result of their excessive aggression—but in a positive way.
We weren’t able to handle that properly enough. That’s what I told them at halftime: instead of accepting that every time we play a ball long, the ball comes up in our 16 (penalty area) again, you need to step up in terms of winning your duels first and create a battle out of it if you want to win here.
“Ibou Konate’s arrival was beneficial; he quickly outplayed the (Ipswich) number nine in duels, which allowed us to have plenty of ball control. We had two goals and had the opportunity to score more.
Konate may be about to reclaim his starting spot after losing it to Quansah at the conclusion of the previous campaign if, as Slot indicated, the Liverpool manager was happy with the France international’s defensive play.
The new man will have to contend with that early call before the weekend. Gomez won’t seem to be taken into consideration at this time, though.
Since Andy Robertson didn’t play much during the preseason, many people assumed Kostas Tsimikas would start for Ipswich.
But with a full week of unbroken training ahead of them, the Scotland captain was chosen and may well hold onto his spot. Trent-Alexander Arnold, meantime, demonstrated his value to the team by dazzling Mohamed Salah for the game’s first goal, which was scored by Diogo Jota.
Also, it doesn’t seem like there is much need to chop and change in the midfield, where Ryan Gravenberch is now slated for a No. 6 role.
The duration of that experiment only Slot is aware that the Reds were after Martin Zubimendi of Real Sociedad earlier this month, but the deal fell through. As of the now, it appears the team isn’t searching for a backup plan elsewhere.
As a result, Gravenberch might be allowed to stick with the role he played during the preseason and, starting this season, the Premier League. After the win over Ipswich, Slot said, “Of course, Ryan is attacking minded but if we play with him (as a number six), then the rest of the team needs to help him as well.”
“The attacking midfielders and attackers must put in a lot of work to assist him there. Ryan can play the ball forward when he sees opportunities to do so, and that was helpful to us tonight, particularly in the second half.”
To his credit, Gravenberch performed admirably in the deeper role, and given that the head coach is familiar with him from their time playing Dutch football and that the new coach, John Heitinga, also managed him at Ajax Jong, there is a belief that he may be among the players who gains the most from Slot’s presence.
Dominik Szoboszlai showed improvement throughout the weekend and appears to be sticking with his position as a No. 10 under Arne Slot.
