Oh, Liverpool. How to gauge the Reds coming into the 2023-24 Premier League season is tricky. Their form at the backend of last season was sublime, and it was good enough for them to rescue European football by way of the Europa League, but they still fell massively short of expectations at Anfield on the hole.
This summer, the club did well to bring in two glaring midfield profiles that have a long-term future as key assets, with Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai both arriving on Merseyside for a combined £100m. But despite that, Jürgen Klopp is painfully short of central options while being inundated by an overwhelming selection of attacking talents at his disposal.
The Reds watched this summer as Fabinho, Jordan Henderson, Naby Keïta, and James Milner all left the club, and recent reports that they could miss out on highly-rated Ecuadorian international starlet Moisés Caicedo despite having their bid accepted by Brighton could come as a real hammer blow to their efforts in completely revamping their midfield triumvirate. Though the Europa League is a competition they should be heavy favorites to win, a real lack of depth in a key area could spell disaster if the injury bug makes its way to the northwest of England.
Predicted XI
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Team News
Jürgen Klopp welcomes the new season with only a smattering of selection issues, but unfortunately, both are in the Liverpool engine room which could expose the lack of depth the club continues to try to rectify. Both Thiago and Stefan Bajčetić are unfit for service on Sunday, which nearly guarantees Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai in the XI against Chelsea.
Apart from that, it should be business as usual from the Reds, with a front three of Mohamed Salah, Cody Gakpo, and Darwin Núñez and the traditional back four plus Alisson behind.
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