Arne Slot’s side will look like next season, though Liverpool is still missing 10 senior players (or 11 including Diogo Jota, who was present in the stadium but not in the matchday squad having only rejoined the group a day earlier). The Reds played a kind of 4-4-2 formation with Szoboszlai and Harvey Elliott down the center.
“It’s a little bit different compared to last year, but we are ready to do everything,” Szoboszlai continued. “I think that’s the goal we want to do.
“So, if Harvey drops on one side, I’m going to the middle, and if I’m dropping on the other side, Harvey is coming to the middle. I don’t know if it’s going to be like this in the season but until the manager wants us to do this then probably we’re going to do this.
“Against the ball especially, we had to do this job with Harvey like if he goes, I cover his back, and exactly the same in the other way. It’s a lot of running, but [I got the goal].”
Slot confirmed that once more strikers return to the fold — Jota, Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo — he will set up differently. But Szoboszlai’s sharpness and good finish were good to see nonetheless. As for Nyoni, introduced when Curtis Jones picked up what appeared to be a hamstring injury, the teenager was superb.
“It was a good pass from Trey [Nyoni],” Szoboszlai said of his goal, the only one in the game. “It’s important that the number sixes see us and use us also. And of course, Mo [Salah] knows how to play these balls.
“I like [Nyoni] a lot; he is a really offensive player. I just said on the bench to [Jarell] Quansah, you can’t even foul him because of his movements and stuff like this.
“Everybody saw in the second half, Nat [Phillips] was a center-back but otherwise everybody was young and almost none of them were 20. But they still did a good job, didn’t concede a goal and had chances. So yeah, a good future.”
