Liverpool rounded off pre-season in style with a 7-3 aggregate win across two games against Athletic Club at Anfield.
Arne Slot got to take a closer look at players from his Premier League regulars to rising stars in the academy and left with a smile on his face after a 4-1 win was followed up by a 3-2 victory.
It was an emotionally charged evening as it was the first time Liverpool fans have watched a match at Anfield since the death of Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva, who passed away last month following a horror car crash.
On the pitch there was reason to cheer, though, with a teenager giving Slot pause for thought, Salah making a mockery of any doubters, and Hugo Ekitike and Darwin Nunez suggesting Alexander Isak may not be required after all.
Our reporter NATHAN SALT watched both matches and came up with seven takeaways…
Mohamed Salah scored at Anfield as Liverpool swept aside Athletic Club across two matches
Darwin Nunez has been linked with a move away all summer but he impressed in the first game
Liverpool DON’T need Isak
OK, so, let’s get the obvious out of the way: every squad in the league would be better for having Alexander Isak in it.
Isak is one of the best strikers in the world and that’s reflected in the £150million price tag Newcastle United are holding out for this summer.
But Liverpool don’t need him.
Want him? Sure. But need him? Not having it, sorry.
Arne Slot’s first side to run out against Athletic Club – a very youthful one at that – hit them for four in a 4-1 win. The second XI, brimming with the big names, followed that up with a 3-2 win.
People will probably point to a potential Darwin Nunez departure amid interest from AC Milan in Italy and Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia and say ‘we need reinforcements up top’.
But Nunez scored 18 goals and added 15 assists the season before last. The season prior he scored 15 goals.
Here Nunez finished his night with a goal and an assist. It is premature to cut losses on a player after one below par season when the replacement requires you to shatter the British transfer record.
Darwin Nunez (left), Cody Gakpo (centre) and Hugo Ekitike (right) will score goals in this side
Alexander Isak is phenomenal but he is a very expensive cherry on top priced at £150million
Cody Gakpo, who scored a brace in the second match, showed he can fill the void left by Luis Diaz, who has gone to Bayern Munich, while Hugo Ekitike, who has joined from Eintracht Frankfurt in a £79m move, showed off his electric pace to the Anfield crowd for the first time.
Mohamed Salah will get plenty of chances, and therefore plenty of goals. Alexis Mac Allister is a genuine goal threat in midfield. Gakpo will score. Nunez will score (if he stays). Ekitike will score.
Nobody is looking at this formidable Liverpool juggernaut and questioning how many goals are in it.
Isak is an expensive cherry on top, sure. But Liverpool can win the lot without him.
Ngumoha is ready to go at 16
If ever there was to be a reminder of just why Chelsea were so furious at Liverpool nabbing Rio Ngumoha from their academy as a 15-year-old, here was a timely reminder.
Within two minutes he drove forward towards the area, leaving Athletic Club’s players dazed by his pace and power, before curling spectacularly into the bottom corner. It was the type of goal you’d expect Florian Wirtz to score, not a 16-year-old.
Ngumoha will be dismissed by some because of his age. It’s a nonsense argument. Not absorbing him into the first team squad this season would be a dereliction of duty from Slot.
It seems doubtful that Slot of all people, who handed the teen his first-team debut against Accrington Stanley in the FA Cup back in January, will be caught napping on one of the most exhilarating young players in the country.
Here it was a stunning goal from range and an assist in a stand-out display that has become something of a norm during this pre-season. Make it four goals and assists this pre-season.
Feeling comfortable enough to move on from Luis Diaz, who has left for Bayern Munich, and run with what you have isn’t the gamble some on the outside may have thought.
Right now Cody Gakpo is the primary left winger, then perhaps Wirtz or Hugo Ekitike get the nod.
But don’t be surprised if Ngumoha’s rapid development makes him a genuine first team option to Slot this season. Academy football no longer serves any purpose for him if Liverpool are to maximise his superstar potential.
Age, after all, is just a number.
Liverpool’s 16-year-old starlet Rio Ngumoha showed why he is now ready for the first team
Ngumoha (centre) has already outgrown academy football and can contribute at the top level
Time for Elliott to take his talents elsewhere
Watching Harvey Elliott bury his head in his dad’s chest after the final home game of last season to hide his tears was to see a boyhood Liverpool fan realising it’s time for a change of environment.
To then see Elliott thrive at the Under-21 European Championships with a starring role in Lee Carsley’s team, winning Player of the Tournament en route to lifting the Euros trophy, was to see a player metaphorically screaming for a chance to be a main man in the Premier League.
Liverpool fans, for the most part, love Elliott. He’s incredibly easy to route for and when he plays he plays well.
The issue is he doesn’t play often, not under Arne Slot. His only Premier League starts last season arrived after Liverpool had already clinched the league title.
Even here in the Athletic Club double header, Elliott formed part of the first XI, a considerably younger line-up made up predominantly of players on the periphery, Alexis Mac Allister aside.
Interest in Elliott is not in short supply and his bright performance here arrived as a timely reminder to his suitors to get a move on to land him.
Elliott got himself a goal and finished as the most accurate passer (96%) to play 45 minutes or more in the opening game.
He’s too talented to spend another season watching from the sidelines when he knows in himself he can go and be the focal point of a Premier League team elsewhere.
If heart rules head, Elliott will be kicking himself in 12 months’ time…
Harvey Elliott sent a timely reminder to his suitors of his quality as he scored on Monday night
Talk of Mohamed Salah’s potential decline was rubbished as he ran Athletic Club ragged
Write off Salah at your peril
I saw some ridiculous rhetoric recently that Mohamed Salah’s drop off is right around the corner. Some dared to suggest that drop off will rear its ugly head this season.
Those same people will rebuff the following argument with the fact that ‘it’s only pre-season’.
Yet here was Salah, fit as a fiddle and dominating without getting out of second gear.
His link-up play with Hugo Ekitike should have Liverpool fans salivating and with so much creativity in this side with Wirtz, Dominik Szoboszlai, Ngumoha, Mac Allister, Gakpo and more, Salah will have more than enough chances to cruise to another golden boot.
Salah’s goal here where he gave the goalkeeper the eyes to convert Ekitike’s left wing cutback was among the easier goals he’ll score this season.
He’ll score a lot – again. Be warned.
Writing him off is plain stupid (but let’s just gloss that penalty he sent to the moon late on…!)
Jota tributes were a touch of class
This was Liverpool’s first match at Anfield since the tragic passing of Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva.
It ensured an emotionally charged atmosphere and from the rousing rendition of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ and the wreaths laid by Liverpool legend Phil Thompson and Athletic Club chairman Jon Uriarte, to players stopping in the twentieth minute to applaud Liverpool’s late No 20 in Jota was to see a tribute exactly as many would have wanted.
Andy Robertson looked choked up as he wiped his eyes during the minute’s applause and nobody could blame him.
Jota’s legacy will live on long beyond this friendly double header but a difficult day was handled with grace and class and for that everyone at Liverpool deserves immense credit.
Players from both sides stopped play in the 20th minute to pay tribute to the late Diogo Jota
Fans had banners and flags made up of Liverpool’s No 20 following his tragic death last month
Wreaths were laid in front of the Kop in what was the first home game since Jota’s death
Centre back signing should be the priority, not a striker
Virgil van Dijk missed out on these friendlies through illness and that can happen. As good as he is, Van Dijk is human.
It meant that in the first game Andy Robertson moved inside to centre back and was partnered by young midfielder Trey Nyoni. In the second game Ibrahima Konate played alongside Wataru Endo.
Two partnerships, three players in makeshift roles outside of their ‘main’ position.
Liverpool conceded in both matches, lapses in concentration that can happen to any side in pre-season.
But it did highlight just how stark the drop-off is when Van Dijk, for whatever reason, is not good to go.
Nyoni did well in the opening game, making a number of smart interceptions, while Konate was industrious in the second.
This Liverpool team are rightly favourites to defend their title and win the Premier League once again after building a team with so few holes in it.
There is a hole at centre back though and that should be their priority now. Sew that up and this side will be a thorn in their rivals’ side for years to come.
Midfielders Trey Nyoni (left) and Wataru Endo (right) both played at centre back across games
Young Hungarian goalkeeper Armin Pecsi showed plenty of signs of promise on Anfield debut
Pecsi looks a diamond in the rough
To look, Armin Pecsi is as far away from intimidating in goal as you can get.
On the 20-year-old came at half-time for Freddie Woodman to make his Anfield debut and while it is a small sample size there is every reason to see Pecsi as a diamond in the rough.
Pecsi’s £1.5million move this summer has pretty much flown under the radar for anyone outside of Merseyside but it feels quite conceivable that Liverpool could have another money-spinning goalkeeping asset on the books, just as they did with Caoimhin Kelleher, who has joined Brentford in a deal rising to £18m.
An error at the back from fellow youngster Luca Stephenson ruined Pecsi’s hopes of a clean sheet but his stunning one-on-one save to deny Gorka Guruzeta drew plenty of plaudits.
The 20-year-old has so much room to grow but the early signs are incredibly bright… much to the frustration of rivals, no doubt.
