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Liverpool opened its Premier League account for the 2025/26 season by beating Bournemouth in thrilling fashion on Friday, letting a two-goal lead slip before Federico Chiesa and Mohamed Salah scored late to secure the points.
Arne Slot's side was far too open at times defensively, with one misplaced pass leading to a major opportunity for a dangerous opponent, but Liverpool got over the line with Newcastle United and Arsenal to come before the end of the month.
It will help the Reds that Ryan Gravenberch, who was suspended for the first game because of his red card against Crystal Palace on the final day of last season, will return for the next fixture. And Joe Gomez was back from injury too.
But Liverpool still has a couple of concerns with all eyes on training this week to see whether or not they are present in the sessions that lead up to the trip to the North East to face Newcastle.
Conor Bradley, Slot said in the week building up to the Community Shield, was facing a race against time to make a comeback at Wembley. That was over a week ago, however, and the Irish full-back is yet to return.
In his place, Jeremie Frimpong started against Bournemouth. But the Dutchman, though he did quite well against David Brooks, was taken off in the second half because he felt his hamstring.
"That wasn’t out of luxury," Slot said when he was asked by Sky Sports why he brought off both Frimpong and Milos Kerkez at the same time at Anfield.
"That was because Jeremie Frimpong felt his hamstring at half-time and made a lot of sprints. He was doing quite well, but the other right full-back Conor Bradley is already out with an injury.
"We don’t want to take the risk of losing another full-back. Then you could argue 'Why don’t you play Joe Gomez there?'.
"But he only had two sessions in pre-season. He wasn’t able to play half an hour, so we started with Wataru Endo."
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Kerkez was booked in the first half of the game for diving into a tackle. And while Slot was impressed by his performance, it would have been a gamble to leave him on longer.
"Our left full-back, Milos Kerkez, is a player that I think the fans like — because every duel he goes all in!" Slot said. "But when you have a yellow card already and you play Semenyo, that’s quite a worry."
Liverpool.com says: Bradley has tended to pick up injuries in the last couple of years and that is a slight concern, even though he isn't expected to be out for long.
Frimpong has been put forward as an option to play on the wing when Salah goes to AFCON but he can't do that and cover for Bradley. It is for that reason that Liverpool needs to ensure it has enough quality options to choose from.
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