Full Liverpool team news and starting line-up for Arne Slot’s first televised friendly match vs Real Betis
Mohamed Salah and Dominik Szoboszlai both start for Liverpool as Arne Slot names his first official XI as head coach against Real Betis in Pittsburgh. The Reds meet the La Liga side in a game that is being dubbed the ‘Iron City Showdown’ in Pennsylvania and Slot has named a strong first-half lineup for the game.
Caoimhin Kelleher starts in goal behind a back four of Conor Bradley, Jarell Quansah, Sepp van den Berg and Kostas Tsimikas, who deputises for the injured Andy Robertson. The Scotland captain is nursing an ankle issue and won’t feature on the three-game tour of the United States.
In midfield, Wataru Endo anchors the engine room with Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott and Szoboszlai also named in a fluid-looking system. It’s unclear which player will feature further forward in the attack as Slot looks to tweak things tactically in the warm-up fixture.
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Salah and Fabio Carvalho feature up top with the latter expected to start as something of a centre-forward in the same way he did in the behind-closed-doors friendly defeat to Preston North End last week at the AXA Training Centre.
Salah has been part of pre-season for the majority of the summer schedule after the decision was taken for him not to go with Egypt as part of their squad for the Olympic Games in Paris.
A youthful-looking bench contains the likes of Amara Nallo, Trey Nyoni, Ben Doak and Kaide Gordon, while Stefan Bajcetic is also poised to feature. Diogo Jota joined up with the contingent on Thursday but does not feature after his involvement for Portugal at the European Championship.
Liverpool: Kelleher; Bradley, Quansah, Van den Berg, Tsimikas; Endo, Szoboszlai, Jones; Salah, Carvalho, Elliott.
Subs: Jaros, Bajcetic, Chambers, Phillips, Gordon, Doak, Beck, Nallo, Koumas, Morton, Blair, Stephenson, Nyoni.
