The 2025/26 English football season is truly set to begin Sunday when Premier League champions Liverpool will do battle with FA Cup holders, Crystal Palace.
While not considered by some to be a major piece of silverware, it's still a chance to lift a trophy in a competitive atmosphere at Wembley, and could prove a good launching point for the new season, so both sides should be locked in from the beginning.
While it's going to be nice to see the competitive fire back again on the pitch in a big way, there are going to be several things to keep an eye on once the action has kicked off.
So, without further ado, let's examine what to watch for from Liverpool in the Community Shield.
Will a new signing make an impact?
Admittedly, this might be an obvious one as there could be a handful of new players that see significant action on Sunday.
The favorite to do something magical would obviously be Florian Wirtz who has looked settled and confident during the preseason and he could be ready to make a huge impact in his first chance for silverware at Anfield.
Wirtz very well could be linking up with Hugo Ekitike, who I expect to get the start in the start in this one.
The tall Frenchman had a good outing against Bilbao last week, showing an especially fruitful connection with Mohamed Salah.
His height could be used on both ends of the pitch to try and mitigate the Crystal Palace size and set-piece qualities.
Finally, the fullbacks, Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong, will have some say in how the match goes on Sunday, with both men having flashed in the early days of their Liverpool careers.
Arne Slot tactical tweaks
With the addition of aggressive wingbacks like Frimpong and Kerkez, along with the unique attacking skills of the newlook forwards, it will be interesting to see what small adjustments Slot implements.
We've seen some examples of what things could look like during the preseason action, but I am sure Slot was not putting forth everything in his cookbook at the time.
Will he continue to keep the shackles on Kerkez as we've seen thus far, or will he allow both sides to bomb forward and leave Virgil van Dijk and Ibou Konate to work with Ryan Gravenberch to shutdown any counters?
Speaking of the midfield, will Alexis Mac Allister get the nod or Dominik Szoboslzai? One has to assume Wirtz is penciled in, and whoever starts between the Argentine or Hungarian could mean different things.
Szobo would play the more traditional box-to-box role where his endless stamina and work rate shines through at all times. He could be the engine that moves the Liverpool attack through Palace.
Or will Macca once again slide in alongside Gravenberch, which we learned last season was a devastating combo in the midfield.
Will either one of them be allowed to get further forward to overwhelm the Eagles or does he want someone tucked in neatly on the side of midfield as a smooth outlet?
The minor tweaks here and there will be fascinating to watch unfold.
Will Liverpool rise to the occasion?
This might seem like an obvious answer, but this is a very different team with a lot of new faces and moving parts in it at the moment.
While it's not the Champions League final, the Community Shield is still a national spotlight event and players feel the heat and will want to perform.
This will give the new signings a glimpse of life in English football and what they can expect, so we will be looking for a good response from the lads.
I'll be interested to see if the young phenom Rio Ngumoha continues to play with supreme confidence or if the moment proves a little too big. I don't think it will, but it's still worth monitoring the 16-year old if he does feature.
Veteran leaders like van Dijk, Salah and Andy Robertson should be helpful in keeping things on the straight and narrow throughout the match. Returning to the site of a disappointing League Cup final defet only a handful of months ago will also be a challenge for some of the squad.
I expect good things in this one, but I also understand anything can happen in a one-off match like this, so we can't assume anything and must go into the match with eyes wide-open.