Arne Slot’s First Pre-Season: 5 Reds Ready to Make an Impact | OneFootball

Liverpool’s Pre-Season Preparations Under Arne Slot

A new era begins

All eyes were on one spot on Friday morning as Arne Slot took his spot in the AXA training centre to answer questions from reporters for the first time in his Liverpool reign.

On Friday, Liverpool’s first team also began the club’s preparation for the season ahead. The likes of Harvey Elliott, Fabio Carvalho and Jarell Quansah were all spotted arriving in the training centre.

Little is known about Liverpool’s full schedule for the summer prior to kicking off their tour of the states in over two weeks’ time. The Reds’ first pre-season opponent at the moment is Real Betis on July 27th – although that could change.

Ahead of pre-season, I’ve taken a look at five Liverpool players who will be looking to impress Arne Slot and improve their fortunes in the Liverpool ranks.

Fabio Carvalho

The Portuguese U21 international is an obvious name. Many have surmised that because Slot likes to play number 10s or more advanced midfielders, Carvalho could finally revive his career at Anfield. Especially on the back of a strong six months at Hull City.

But the reality is that as Slot clarified in his press conference he doesn’t see his formation as a 4-2-3-1 – but rather a 4-3-3. As I’ve written several times on Anfield Index, Slot’s midfield is very similar to Jurgen Klopp.

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Which means the same issues may arise for Carvalho that arose under Klopp as well. He’s definitely playing with more confidence. However, does he have the physicality and the endurance to play as an advanced number eight? Or the speed to play out on the flanks?

The answer is moot. All will be revealed in pre-season. But a new manager means he will be starting with a clean slate and there will be an opportunity for Carvalho to surprise us all.

Jayden Danns

With Cody Gakpo, Darwin Nunez and Diogo Jota all still on international duty at Euro 2024 and the Copa America respectively, Slot will begin pre-season with very few players who can actually play the number nine role for Liverpool.

This should present Danns with an opportunity to make his mark under the new Liverpool manager.

Photo: IMAGO

We saw last season just how impressive the Liverpool youngster can be. Danns is clinical with the ability to press his opponents from the front, and he’s also technically gifted and capable of involving himself in the build-up play.

He suits Slot’s style to a tee, and I’m expecting this to be a big pre-season for the 18 year old.

Stefan Bajcetic

Bajcetic finally returned to full fitness towards the end of last season. He’s been carefully managed by Liverpool over the course of the last year or so after going through a growth spurt.

Photo: IMAGO

Jurgen Klopp handed him a couple of opportunities towards the end of last season – now he will be hoping to impress Arne Slot.

There’s a lot to admire about Bajcetic. He’s very composed on the ball and reads the game really well.

He was able to progress the ball really well and cover a lot of ground when initially broke into the Liverpool first team squad.

But there are still question marks to answer. His distribution needs to improve, and we saw that last season with a few sloppy passes. Secondly, it’s still not set in stone what his best role is in midfield. Is he a number eight or a number six? He’s played both roles for Liverpool both at senior and academy level.

These questions are natural for a young player still honing his skills. Bajcetic will be hoping to answer some of them in pre-season.

Sepp van den Berg

Liverpool’s three senior centre-backs, Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Ibrahima Konate are all away at Euro 2024 which means there should be plenty of opportunities for Sepp van den Berg to impress his fellow compatriot, Arne Slot.

Van den Berg posted impressive numbers last season. No centre-back won more aerial duels than him in Europe’s top five leagues.

Photo: IMAGO

He’s a strong, no-nonsense defender who got to show his defensive qualities in a struggling Mainz side last season.

But is he capable of playing in a more offensive Liverpool side, who are expected to maintain playing a high line under Slot? That question will have to be determined in pre-season.

Trent Kone-Doherty

Given the absence of a lot of Liverpool’s senior attacking players, I’m expecting Trent Kone-Doherty to be given an opportunity to impress Arne Slot and his coaching staff at some point this summer.

The Republic of Ireland attacker has been really impressive at academy level since arriving at the club.

In total, he has 30 goal contributions in 47 games for the club’s U18, U19 and U21 side. Towards the end of the season, Kone-Doherty was given more and more opportunities to showcase his talent in the Premier League 2.

Expect him to be more involved in first team training this season and it would not be a surprise to see him catch the eye in pre-season.

He’s a great dribbler, who has averaged around 6.5 dribbler per 90 in his Liverpool academy career so far and completed over 60% of his dribble attempts.

Capable of making an impact in the final third, Kone-Doherty is one to watch. He’s just turned 18 years old, and will need to improve physically in order to make the next step in his career, but he does have impressive attributes that could translate well to first team football.