By: Shane Brennan
Liverpool got their preparations for the 2022/23 season underway with a trip to Bangkok to face rivals Manchester United, but what exactly did we learn from the exercise?
A 37 man squad made the trip out to Thailand and Jürgen Klopp and his management team were hoping to give each participant available for selection a maximum of 30 minutes on the field. Before kick-off, Klopp confirmed that Diogo Jota would not be taking any part in the prestigious friendly due to a slight hamstring injury. Thankfully it is not said to be too serious but the Portuguese star was left out as a precaution.
Two of Liverpool’s summer signings were included on match day, Fabio Carvalho made his debut from the start, whilst Darwin Nunez had to wait until the final half hour of the game to make his Liverpool bow.
So, what did we learn from the game?
Fabio Carvalho looks like a bright prospect!
Liverpool’s new Portuguese man set up Luis Diaz for a massive first chance of the game, but David de Gea was equal to the effort
He then hit the post with his next attempt, whilst also running and dribbling well with the ball in the lead up to the effort.
Darwin Nunez makes Liverpool debut and familiar faces return!
The last part of the game saw a whole host of Liverpool’s stars return to action including Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold , Andy Robertson, Fabinho and most importantly Nunez, who began his journey in a Liverpool shirt, managing to bring a fine save out of Tom Heaton from a tight angle.
Mohamed Salah’s performance
The new contract man did well under difficult circumstances as he came close to reducing the arrears on the score line twice, in what proved to be a rather hard day at the office for Liverpool.
Youngsters performed
Isaac Mabaya and Luke Chambers, both long term products of The Liverpool Academy, did themselves proud with Mabaya producing a great save from de Get with the first chance of the game.
However, Mabaya then failed to clear his lines properly from a cross in and his half clearance fell straight to Jadon Sancho who belted the ball into the back of the net.
But the young man more than made up for his mistake later on in the game when he prevented Marcus Rashford from doubling United’s lead by making a super block.
Chambers set up another chance for new signing Carvalho, which caused all sorts of confusion in the Manchester United defence.
Tyler Morton also produced some promising defending throughout his spell on the field cutting out crucial avenues of attack from a dangerous looking United side.
Also Stefan Bajcetic, Bobby Clark , Tom Hill, Melkamu Frauendorf and Leighton Clarkson all managed to gain decent experience alongside plenty of first teamers, which will hopefully help their progression in the long term.
Conclusion
Overall it’s pre-season! 4
-0 was a harsh score line considering two of United’s goals came either side of Liverpool changing all of their out field players, Liverpool’s final passes didn’t have the usual zest to them but to put it into perspective, three different teams were on the field and it’s an experimental time of year, fitness is the be all and end all at this stage so it was a very useful workout for all involved!
