Premier League announce rule changes that will affect Liverpool this season

The 2024/25 Premier League season officially gets underway very soon as Liverpool begin a new era under Arne Slot.

Succeeding Jurgen Klopp at the helm, the Dutchman has overseen a positive pre-season, guiding the Reds to victories over Real Betis, Arsenal, Manchester United and Sevilla with his tactical vision already on display.

But what can be expected of the Merseyside giants in the Premier League this term? Not many pundits are predicting a title challenge in Slot's first season, although the general consensus is they should seal a top-four finish and therefore qualify for the UEFA Champions League.

Given this is the first season post-Klopp for Liverpool, it promises to be an intriguing one and there are some significant rule changes to keep in mind as listed on the Premier League's official website.

READ MORE: Danny Murphy delivers VERDICT on Liverpool's 2024/25 Premier League title chances

Premier League rule changes for 2024/25 season

Subs warming up

A slight tweak is that from this season, the number of substitutes allowed to warm up at the same time on the perimeter of the pitch during a match has gone up from three to five players per team.

This is to correspond with the fact that teams are able to make five substitutions at any one time.

Multiball

As before, the Premier League will practice the multiball system in 2024/25, with 15 balls in use to speed up the game. When the match ball goes out of play and is not quickly retrievable, players must go to the nearest cone to collect a replacement ball themselves to restart play.

Ball assistants are not permitted to return a ball to a player but should return it to a vacant cone.

But from this season, an exception to this rule has been introduced in that the ball assistants positioned behind the goals at the end where the ball goes out are allowed to return a ball to the goalkeeper who will take the restart.

It remains the case that a club’s technical area staff who deliberately delay the restart of play by holding on to the ball, kicking the ball away, etc will be sent off. Any players who do the same in the technical area will receive a yellow card.

More accurate calculation of added time

From this season, when a goal is scored, match officials will only start adding time on to the end of the match when the delay between the goal and the subsequent kick-off exceeds 30 seconds. This will allow natural time for both teams to resume their restart positions after each goal.

Given that there were 3.28 goals scored per match last season on average, this change may result in a significant drop in stoppage time this season.