(Football news) As Ipswich Town prepare to end their lengthy exile from the top flight of English football, the Reds gear up for their first competitive match under the wing of Arne Slot.
A penny for Jurgen Klopp’s thoughts as Liverpool were given the first 12.30pm kickoff of the new season – the German often had a bone to pick with the fixture organisers when his side were given the early slot – but he can now kick back and watch Saturday’s contest as a fan while Slot rallies his troops in the morning.
It has been almost seven months since Klopp dropped the unexpected bombshell that the 2023-24 campaign would be his last at Anfield, and while he left with another EFL Cup winners’ medal around his neck, Premier League supremacy proved a step too far.
Nevertheless, ex-Feyenoord boss Slot – whom Tottenham Hotspur tried and failed to hire in 2023 – will be guiding the Reds back into the promised land of the Champions League this season, albeit in its new-look format, and the new manager bounce was seemingly in full effect in pre-season.
Despite commencing their summer with a shock 1-0 loss to Preston North End behind closed doors, Liverpool subsequently won four on the spin against revered opposition in Real Betis, Arsenal, Manchester United and Sevilla, before a low-key goalless draw with Las Palmas at an empty Anfield.
While Slot has already laid down a few markers this summer, the same cannot be said of Liverpool’s transfer gurus, as impatient Reds fans are still awaiting their first new arrival of the summer while the sporting team prioritise the contracts of Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold.
In stark contrast, many a new face has filtered in through the Portman Road doors following Ipswich’s second successive promotion, as the 2022-23 League One runners-up came within a whisker of pipping Leicester City to Championship glory last season.
A second-placed ranking was still sufficient to propel the Tractor Boys back into the top flight 22 years on from their most recent Premier League foray, having competed exclusively in the lower tiers ever since their demotion in the 2001-02 campaign.
The sterling work of head coach Kieran McKenna supposedly saw some of the Premier League’s big boys come calling, namely Chelsea and Manchester United, but the 38-year-old rejected the chance to move up the footballing ladder in favour of penning a new Portman Road contract.
Akin to upcoming foes Liverpool, Ipswich’s pre-season preparations were overwhelmingly positive, as McKenna oversaw a trio of 1-0 victories over Shakhtar Donetsk, Hoffenheim and Nice, with the only blot being a 2-1 beating at the hands of Fortuna Dusseldorf.
While Ipswich’s summer contests were mostly low-scoring, 222 goals since McKenna took charge in December 2021 puts them second in England’s top four divisions since that month, only behind Manchester City’s 239. On the other side of the coin, however, their two meetings with Liverpool in the 2001-02 Premier League season ended with the Tractor Boys shipping 11 across 180 minutes, suffering an embarrassing 6-0 slaughter at Portman Road.
Also read: Manchester United win against Fulham in the season opener by 1-0
