A look at how Liverpool might line up when they host Brentford in the Premier League on Sunday Having travelled to Ipswich Town with the rare luxury of a full complement of players, Arne Slot will be hopeful of a clean bill of health for his first taste of Anfield in the Premier League against Brentford this coming Sunday. Injuries too often undercut Liverpool at times last term, particularly when they had as many as 13 first-team players sidelined at one point across late February and March. For now, though, it is hoped that Slot will still have everyone to choose from this weekend but it was instructive that Joe Gomez missed out on Saturday for the curtain raiser away at Portman Road.
The versatile defender is now considering his options after nine years at the club and there will be interested parties who will come forward before the August 30 transfer deadline. Having come close to making a £45m move to Newcastle United as negotiations for Anthony Gordon were entered into in late June, Gomez may now look elsewhere after nearly a decade at Anfield. He is the club's longest-serving player but his absence against Ipswich hinted at uncertainty in the coming days.
Another interesting subplot will be what Slot does at centre-half having switched Jarell Quansah for Ibrahima Konate at half-time of Saturday's 2-0 win. Speaking about the tactical decision, the Reds head coach said: “It wasn’t so much that we lost the ball too much, but we lost far too many duels. They (Ipswich) were very aggressive which led to three yellow cards, but in a good way aggressive.
“We didn’t cope with that well enough. That’s what I said to them at half-time – if you want to win here, you need to go a step up in terms of winning your duels first and make a fight out of it instead of accepting that every time we play a ball long, the ball ends up in our 16 (penalty area) again. “It helped that Ibou Konate came in, he from the start won his duels from the (Ipswich) number nine and that gave us a lot of ball possession.
We got two goals and could have scored more.” Having lost his place to Quansah at the back end of last season, Konate could be set to regain it now if, as Slot suggested, the Liverpool boss was pleased with the France international's contribution at the back. That is one early call for the new man to wrestle with before the weekend.
It appears, though, that Gomez won't be factored into the thinking at this stage. Andy Robertson had barely featured across pre-season, leading many to expect Kostas Tsimikas to be given the nod for Ipswich. The Scotland captain, however, was selected and could be in line to keep his place given there is a full week of uninterrupted training to come now, while Trent-Alexander Arnold reaffirmed his importance to the cause with a stunning pass to Mohamed Salah for the opening goal, scored by Diogo Jota .
There doesn't appear to much need to chop and change in the midfield area either, with Ryan Gravenberch set for something of a No.6 role now. How long that experiment lasts only Slot knows at the moment, The Reds targeted Martin Zubimendi from Real Sociedad earlier this month before seeing the deal collapse and the suggestion at present is the club aren't looking elsewhere for a Plan B.
That means Gravenberch may be entrusted to continue in the position he has featured in across pre-season and now the Premier League campaign itself. "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," Slot after the victory over Ipswich. "It takes a lot of effort from the attackers and attacking midfielders to help him there.
What we do know from Ryan is that he can play the ball forward if he sees options to do so, and that helped us today especially in the second half." Gravenberch, to his credit, was impressive in the deeper role and there is a school of thought that he could be one of the players who benefits most from Slot's arrival given the head coach knows him well from their time in Dutch football, while new coach John Heitinga also managed him at Ajax Jong. Dominik Szoboszlai grew into the game at the weekend and looks set to continue in his role as something of a No.
10 under Slot, although Harvey Elliott is also pressing his claims after an excellent pre-season for the Reds. Up top, there also seems little need to change given the fixtures are sparse at present. Luis Diaz was a typical hive of activity against Ipswich and perhaps could have added a couple to the scoreline, while Jota and Salah did the damage as the two sharpshooters of the team.
Cody Gakpo , a second-half substitute, and Darwin Nunez , unused at Ipswich, will have their own claims but with both only recently returning to club duty after Euro 2024 and Copa America involvement, the pair might be forced to settle for places on the bench against Brentford..
