It’s Liverpool's first competitive game at Anfield since the passing of Diogo Jota earlier this summer. Undoubtedly, there will be a commemoration of some sort and respect paid prior to the game.
We then face a tricky opener against a disciplined Bournemouth team, who have lost a few key components recently.
Whilst we got an idea of who Slot sees as his starters in the Community Shield, I believe the team below is who we’re most likely to see line up on Friday night.
Goalkeeper: Alisson
Defenders: Milos Kerkez, Ibou Konate, Virgil van Dijk, Jeremie Frimpong
Midfielders: Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister, Florian Wirtz
Attackers: Cody Gakpo, Hugo Ekitike, Mohammed Salah
Alisson is walking into the number one spot here - as he should. I’m not sure how many more opening days we have with Ali in the sticks, so let’s make the most of them whilst we have them.
After watching the performance on Sunday, I feel like the defense, at least for the time being, picks itself. This back four needs time to gel and get used to each other, so I think we can expect this as the default for the first few games.
Once the cups start getting introduced and when/if we land Marc Guehi and Giovanni Leoni, that’s when we’ll see some tinkering, but for now, we’ll be seeing a lot of these four.
Football isn’t played in a vacuum, and I’ve never been one to read into one singular performance, but questions were asked of Liverpool defensively on the weekend, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a more focused and disciplined back line.
A clean sheet here would certainly silence some of the unnecessary noise.
The centre of the park is where we’ll see the most rotation in the squad throughout the course of the season.
The competition for places is extremely high, with each of our first team midfielders bringing an attribute that they’re extremely high in.
Assuming Szoboszlai is ready to bounce back after last weekend, this will likely be how we line up.
Macca will play the deep-lying, defensive cover role, Szobo will patrol the centre, and Wirtz will assume the number 10 position. Sounds dangerous already.
Up top, we’re running with the same front three that started on Sunday. Cody was as solid as ever, and you can forecast his goal contributions will rise as he settles into the season.
Salah was relatively quiet on the weekend, but that has never lasted long at all. Expect to see Mo, all guns blazing, when the whistle goes on Friday.
For me, the most exciting part of the entire first gameweek is Hugo Ekitike. He looks like a proper handful, and under the lights in his first home game in a Liverpool shirt, we could see fireworks here.
Either way, we should be expecting three points and showing the rest of the league why we’ve been pipped by fans and pundits alike to retain our Premier League title.
Football is finally back, and I, for one, absolutely can not wait.