🦁 PL Previews: New-look Liverpool must click for title challenge | OneFootball

Liverpool fell from great heights in 2022/23, following up a season where they were two games away from winning the quadruple to falling out of the Champions League qualification places.

It’s been all change at Anfield this summer, but can their new-look midfield help them challenge Manchester City at the top once again?

Click here to see all of our season previews so far.

Transfers 🔁

In: Dominik Szoboszlai (RB Leipzig, £60m), Alexis Mac Allister (Brighton and Hove Albion, £35m)

Out: Fabinho (Al-Ittihad, £40m), Jordan Henderson (Al-Ettifaq, £12m), Roberto Firmino (Al-Ahli, free), Naby Keïta (Werder Bremen, free), James Milner (Brighton, free), Fábio Carvalho (RB Leipzig, loan), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (released), Sepp van den Berg (Mainz, loan), Calvin Ramsay (Preston, loan), Rhys Williams (Aberdeen, loan)

Transfer balance: -£43m

Key fixtures 📆

🔑 Key player: Trent Alexander-Arnold

Despite Liverpool’s struggles last season, Mohamed Salah still bagged 28 goals and will be pivotal to any success the team will have in 2023/24.

But it appears that Liverpool 2.0 under Jürgen Klopp is being built for Alexander-Arnold.

The right-back now has licence to move into midfield, where many feel he should play full-time, when the team have the ball. The shift was trialled towards the back end of last season and the early signs in pre-season suggest it is here to stay.

That trial saw him provide seven assists in 10 games down the home straight and, as long as Klopp can tidy up the weaknesses posed in this new formation, Liverpool could be about to see the creative best of the 24-year-old.

A firing and in-form Alexander-Arnold can propel the club back up the table.

What has changed since last season? 🤔

In short, a lot.

Jürgen Klopp had prepared to say goodbye to club legends Roberto Firmino and James Milner, while it was known for some time that Naby Keïta and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain would not be offered new deals.

But the departures of club captain Jordan Henderson and the team’s “lighthouse” Fabinho would’ve caught the German by surprise.

There is a lot of hope around new arrivals Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szobozslai but there is still work to be done in the midfield area in the transfer market.

There are a lot of questions and a high sense of the unknown about this Liverpool going into the new campaign. Is Klopp capable of building another team that can challenge for the title?

Predicted XI 🔮

(4-3-3) — Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Konaté, Van Dijk, Robertson; Mac Allister, Jones, Thiago; Salah, Gakpo, Díaz.

Where will they finish? 🏆

Premier League: 4th

Europa League: Quarter-finals

FA Cup: Semi-finals

EFL Cup: Winners