Today, July 13, Liverpool travels to Deepdale to play Championship team Preston North End in their first preseason friendly of the summer (3pm kickoff). For the Premier League winners, the game will be tinged with sadness.
Since their striker Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva died in a car accident in Spain on Thursday, July 3, it will be their first since that tragedy.
The devastated Reds team must now move on with their lives. On Tuesday, July 8, they resumed their training, and this afternoon, they will play Preston again.
It is hard to predict what Liverpool will do against Preston, aside from some very emotional moments as the Reds take to the field for the first time since Diogo Jota’s untimely death.
Since Arne Slot occasionally used the box midfield formation during the campaign and during the previous preseason, I’m going to take a chance and recommend it.
With record-signing Florian Wirtz making an unofficial debut alongside Dominik Szoboszlai as the two number 10s, Mohamed Salah and Cody Gakpo would start on the wings in such a configuration. To finish the box are Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister, assuming he has fully recovered from the nagging injury that kept him out towards the end of last season.
I wonder if Alisson Becker began preseason a little later than his teammates because, during their Friday afternoon group visit to the memorial site in honor of Jota and his brother, Andre Silva, he was the only Liverpool player dressed in his own clothes rather than training attire. According to reports, he attended his late teammate’s seventh-day mass in Portugal on Wednesday.
Because of this, I will start Giorgi Mamardashvili in goal, giving the Georgian an unofficial start.
Although it won’t be long, Jeremie Frimpong will have to wait to make a substitute appearance. With Milos Kerkez making his debut on the other flank, Conor Bradley can start at right-back. Van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate then complete the XI.
My team (4-2-2-2): Mamardashvili, Bradley, Konate, Van Dijk, Kerkez; Gravenberch, Mac Allister; Elliot, Wirtz; Salah, Nunez