Four things will ‘definitely’ happen in Liverpool’s US tour as Arne Slot to provide exciting glimpse

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot and the players from his ranks who have returned for pre-season at this stage of the summer are set to embark on their pre-season tour of the USA later this week.

The Reds will play Real Betis (Pittsburgh), Arsenal (Philadelphia) and Manchester United (Colombia) next week. Once that is taken care of, Liverpool will host Sevilla at Anfield and then six days later head to Ipswich Town on the opening weekend of the new Premier League season.

Between now and then, there’s a lot to do — even if the days will fly by. On the pitch, Slot has to integrate his new ideas and he and sporting director Richard Hughes have a lot to think about.

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As we look ahead to the trip to the US, here’s what Liverpool.com thinks will “definitely” happen in the next segment of the Reds’ pre-season preparations. We’re about to see what Slot’s team will look like.

Formation and style confirmed

While Slot has already made it clear that he sees his formation as a 4-3-3 rather than the 4-2-3-1 that many have mistakenly assumed, it will become clear in friendlies what exactly that looks like and how it is different. it could be what Jurgen Klopp was doing last season. There will be continuity, but there will also be some evolution – and whatever it looks like, the change will be exciting.

The slot has its own style that it brings, and while we won’t know for sure what it looks like until more high-profile stars return to the fold, we might get a few hints here. There will be a lot to look out for.

The Mohamed Salah positional experiment

It looked like Mohamed Salah was playing through the center of Liverpool’s attack during the closed-door friendly with Preston North End, but it will be interesting to see if that was just because there are few other options available at the moment or if it’s a ploy that Liverpool can use him next season. He has rarely played this role until now at club level.

There’s certainly a strong case for playing Salah as close to goal as possible now that he’s not as explosive as he once was. But if Salah plays number 10 or number nine, then there are two questions: who plays on the right and what happens to Darwin Nunez and Diogo Jota? It’s definitely something for Slot to think about.

Young talents have a chance

With so many senior players missing, Liverpool youngsters such as Ben Doak and Kaide Gordon will have their chance to impress. It’s a real shame for Bobby Clark that the 19-year-old midfielder is injured at the moment, otherwise he’d be top of that list too.

Those three are notable names, but the likes of Luke Chambers and Lewis Koumas will be there. And then there are players like Tyler Morton and Fabio Carvalho, whose role in the team may be about to become clear.

Sepp van den Berg the opportunity

Liverpool placed a price of approx $26m (£20m/€24m) on 22-year-old centre-back Sepp van den Berg this summer and the player himself has expressed his firm desire to leave and to play regular minutes after impressing at Mainz last year. But the Reds need him for now, with Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Ibrahima Konate still on holiday for now.

Van den Berg has developed a lot while on loan, but there remains a legitimate question mark over whether he will get enough playing time at Anfield to justify staying. PSV are among the clubs looking at him, but any move would have to be after the US tournament in all likelihood.

If the Dutchman were to impress here, perhaps he could force his way into Slot’s thinking ahead of the new campaign. After all, Jarell Quansah came up big last year, so it’s not impossible.