Ipswich Town face a difficult return to the Premier League against Liverpool at Portman Road.
Kieran McKenna’s Tractor Boys were promoted as Championship runners-up, whilst Liverpool are under new management as Arne Slot replaces Jurgen Klopp at the helm.
Team News
Ipswich have no fresh injury concerns to report following their 1-0 win over Nice in their final pre-season friendly.
Ben Johnson, Jacob Greaves, Liam Delap, Arijanet Muric and Conor Townsend could be in line for their debuts.
Harry Clarke (Achilles), George Hirst (knee) and Nathan Broadhead (hamstring) are sidelined, whilst Janoi Donacien (adductor) is still training with the club despite being out of contract.
Liverpool have no fresh injury concerns to report with a full squad in contention.
When is Kick-Off?
Ipswich host Liverpool at Portman Road on Saturday 17 August at 12:30pm BST, live on TNT Sport 1 in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Ipswich are unbeaten in three of their last five league meetings against Liverpool (W2, D1, L2).
- Liverpool are unbeaten in their last five league visits to Ipswich (W3, D2).
- Ipswich are looking to avoid losing four consecutive matches against Liverpool for the fourth time in their history.
- All four of Ipswich’s goals in pre-season came from four different goalscorers (Sam Morsy, Marcus Harkness, Jack Taylor and Axel Tuanzebe).
- Slot’s Reds have kept three clean sheets in pre-season (W4, D1, L1).
Prediction
With so much having changed in the top-flight across the last 22 years, Ipswich will need to be prepared for a tough immediate test but they do possess versatile attacking flexibility and lethal set-piece play which could be key here.
Liverpool meanwhile are facing the dawn of a new competitive era under Slot – who seems to have already built upon Klopp’s foundations of last season, which is a huge positive for the players who should transition well to his similar style.
The first goal though will be key because if Ipswich get ahead in front of a lively home crowd, anything could happen but I do expect Liverpool’s quality to show through and them to get that opening goal and kick on.
Prediction: Ipswich 1-2 Liverpool
Result: Ipswich 0-2 Liverpool