Liverpool boss Arne Slot has named his starting XI for the first match of this summer's pre-season. It is expected that there will be plenty of rotation at Deepdale as the Reds play Preston North End.
The Reds line up as follows: Giorgi Mamardashvili is in goal, with a back four of Conor Bradley, Joe Gomez, Luca Stephenson and Kostas Tsimikas. Ryan Gravenberch, Trey Nyoni and Dominik Szoboszlai are in midfield, with Federico Chiesa, Mohamed Salah and Rio Ngumoha in attack.
The subs bench reads as follows: Woodman, Pecsi, Endo, Nunez, Jones, Gakpo, Robertson, Doak, Kerkez, Frimpong, Nallo, Koumas, Morrison, Pilling. Florian Wirtz and Virgil van Dijk, who played in the UEFA Nations League this summer, are not involved. Neither are Alisson Becker, Ibrahima Konate, Alexis Mac Allister and Luis Diaz.
Before kick-off, tributes will be paid to Diogo Jota and his brother, Andre Silva, who were tragically killed in a car crash earlier this month. You'll Never Walk Alone will be sung and the players on both teams will be wearing black armbands.
There will be a minute's silence before the game begins. A commemorative matchday programme has also been produced, which will be available for free to those in attendance with a match ticket.
"Nothing seems to be important if we think of what has happened," Slot told the Reds' official website.
Liverpool head coach Arne Slot.
Liverpool head coach Arne Slot. (Image: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
"But we are a football club and we need to train and we need to play again, if we want it or not.
"What I’ve said to the players, I can say it here as well. It’s very difficult to find the right words because we constantly debate what is appropriate.
"What is appropriate in our actions? What is appropriate [for] what we have to say? Can we train again? Can we laugh again? Can we be angry if there’s a wrong decision?
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"And I’ve said to them, maybe the best thing for us to do is handle this situation like Jota was. And what I meant with that is that Jota was always himself, it didn’t matter if he was talking to me, to his teammates, to the staff, he was always himself.
"So let us try to be ourselves as well. So, if we want to laugh we laugh; if we want to cry we’re going to cry.
"If they want to train they can train, if they don’t want to train they can not train. But be yourself, don’t think you have to be different than your emotions tell you."