Liverpool continued their pre-season preparations with two games against Athletic Bilbao at Anfield on Monday night. They won the first match 4-1, with goals from Rio Ngumoha, Darwin Núñez, Ben Doak and Harvey Elliott, and then a stronger side beat their opponents 3-2, with Mohamed Salah (who also missed a penalty) and Cody Gakpo (2) on target.
Times Sport followed the action.
Repeat after me: it is only pre-season, it is only pre-season. And yet, still, some of the slick interplay between Liverpool’s attackers and the speed with which they performed in transition served to whet the appetite for the coming campaign. The head coach, Arne Slot, displayed his tactical acumen in winning the Premier League title without being able to call on reserves of strength last term. A summer of spending appears to have provided him with a plethora of options.
Ekitike, Liverpool’s new £79million forward, showed plenty for Anfield to get excited about
JAY BARRATT – AMA/GETTY IMAGES
Liverpool’s fluidity was never more evident in the positions of those on the pitch. Sometimes Florian Wirtz — who could basically flit to wherever he saw fit — was in between Hugo Ekitike, who drifted over to the left, and Salah on the right. At other times Salah was narrow, tucked inside, and the right back Jeremie Frimpong high and wide. Occasionally Gakpo was in a line of three alongside the relentless Dominik Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch. The swish of Wirtz’s passing fired the imagination and Ekitike bamboozling Athletic’s Daniel Vivian in assisting Salah’s goal was a sheer delight. Alexander Isak, perhaps watching from afar with an All Red Video subscription, would have been glued to his plasma TV.
Slot spoke before the end of last season about the need to add a “few extra weapons” and, with Trent Alexander-Arnold having left, Wirtz will be asked to provide a different kind of thrust.
“Florian has a lot of creativity in the final third,” Slot said. “We have lost with Trent a lot of creativity from the back, Trent’s crosses and picking out runners was so special. I think Florian has this quality as well, in a totally different position. He brings that creativity.”
Wirtz tended to go where he saw fit and his passing fired Liverpool’s imagination
ACTION IMAGES VIA REUTERS/LEE SMITH
Rio ready?
Excitement has been building around the 16-year-old Rio Ngumoha in pre-season and opening the scoring in the first game inside two minutes did little to dampen the hype. Driving forward from near the halfway line, he casually stroked a shot beyond the Athletic goalkeeper Alex Padilla from the edge of the area. It was an eye-catching way of maintaining the impression built on the tour to the Far East. He also set up Núñez soon after.
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The sight of the left back Andrew Robertson, the teenage central midfielder Trey Nyoni and the midfielder Wataru Endo starting at centre half in the games illustrated the defensive issues that have reared before the new season.
Virgil van Dijk missed the double-header through illness, Joe Gomez was also absent with the achilles injury that prompted him to return home early from the club’s tour, and Conor Bradley was also unavailable due to a knock.
Ibrahima Konaté was the only recognised centre back Liverpool had on parade after the sale of Jarell Quansah to Bayer Leverkusen.
Gakpo scored twice for Liverpool’s stronger second side against Athletic Bilbao
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER BRADLEY ORMESHER
Liverpool have been looking at a number of young centre backs across Europe, including Parma’s Giovanni Leoni, while there remains an interest in Crystal Palace’s Marc Guéhi. Should Palace agree to sell, then the asking price of the England international would be key given he has entered the final year of his contract.
Slot believes both Gomez and Bradley are doubts for Sunday’s Community Shield clash with Palace and the Premier League opener with Bournemouth. That represents a blow, in particular, for Bradley, who was expected to be given the opportunity to start the season ahead of new boy Frimpong.
It is not Liverpool’s style to buy with the short term in mind, but resources are undoubtedly stretched. Bilbao’s equalisers, from Oihan Sancet and Maroan Sannadi via a Gakpo deflection, in the second game both came from set pieces. They were the sort of cheap concessions that put pressure on those further forward. Substance is needed to go with their obvious style, with the goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili producing an excellent save from Adu Ares to preserve victory.
Darwin at the exit door
This may yet prove to be Darwin Núñez’s Anfield farewell, though there was no sign of an emotional goodbye from the striker at the end of the first game.
Simone Inzaghi’s Al-Hilal and AC Milan have registered their interest in the Uruguayan but, prior to the matches, Liverpool had not received firm bids from either. Núñez’s asking price is around the €70million bid (£60.6 million) that was rejected after an approach from Al-Nassr at the end of the January window when priority was given to winning the Premier League.
Núñez was the epitome of professionalism but his future remains uncertain at Anfield
PHIL BRYAN/SHUTTERSTOCK
The idea of PIF-owned Al-Hilal helping to fund another bid from Liverpool for Isak of PIF-owned Newcastle United has not been lost on some.
Here, Núñez was the epitome of professionalism, which cannot have been easy. He tapped in to register his fifth goal in the warm-up programme and later set up Elliott, who did applaud all stands and blew a kiss to the Kop after his run-out. His future remains similarly uncertain.
The inclusion of both in the first game served to demonstrate where they sit in the pecking order.
Forever Our Number 20
It was the 20th minute of the opening game when proceedings stopped and Anfield rose as one to pay tribute to Diogo Jota and his brother André Silva, who died in a car crash at the start of July. Players from both sides joined the crowd in a period of applause, and Jota’s song was poignantly sung once again. Before kick-off, former captain Phil Thompson and Athletic director Jon Uriarte laid two wreaths in front of the Kop to honour the brothers.
Liverpool have so far played six games in pre-season, but the unimaginable loss of one of their team-mates remains at the forefront of their thoughts. And will continue to do so.
Liverpool supporters pay tribute to Jota, who died in a car crash with his brother last month
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER BRADLEY ORMESHER
“It is still a bit surreal, to be honest, but we are coping in the best way possible as a team, and we are all trying to do the best job we can in order to get through this really difficult time,” Van Dijk said in his programme notes.
“With everything that happened, it has been strange having to now try and carry on with work, with football. We will never forget Diogo, of course, but we just have to try to honour his memory.”
Ngumoha, formerly of Chelsea, departed shortly after the hour mark and is pressing his claims as an option off the substitutes’ bench this season. A song is already in the offing — “His name is Rio and he dances down the wing” — though he was not the only youngster who did well, with Nyoni, Doak and substitute goalkeeper Armin Pesci also delivering good cameos.
Will Wright, newly signed from Salford City, featured as a substitute in the second game and the 17-year-old should have scored on the counter following Federico Chiesa’s pass. For them, the quality at the club means forging a pathway will be the hard part.