Liverpool play Preston on Friday in Arne Slot's first game as head coach

New head coach Arne Slot will take charge of Liverpool for the first time ever on Friday July 19 as the Reds face a pre-season friendly against Preston North End. 

The game against the Championship side will be played behind closed doors at Liverpool’s AXA Training Centre, as first reported by David Lynch on Substack. 

Preston, managed by former Liverpool youth Ryan Lowe, enjoy a fruitful relationship with the Reds and the likes of Sepp van den Berg and Calvin Ramsay have spent time on loan at Deepdale in recent seasons. 

“We’ve got the opportunity to go to a Premier League training ground on Friday and pit our wits against a top, top, top Premier League team and we’re privileged to do that,” Lowe told his club’s official website earlier this week.

It will be Slot’s first opportunity to get his players a tune up ahead of the Premier League season kicking off on August 17 with a game away at Ipswich Town. 

The Liverpool players who went deep in the European Championship and Copa America are not yet back at the club with Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Alexis Mac Allister and more still on holiday. 

Bradley, Kelleher and Tsimikas back in training

Players who went out in the group stages of Euro 2024 - such as Dominik Szoboszlai and Andy Robertson - have returned to the club. 

Slot and his new staff - which now includes John Heitinga - welcomed the first group of players back to the club for pre-season last week. 

Conor Bradley, Caoimhin Kelleher, Kostas Tsimikas and Sepp van den Berg were among those put through their paces before the likes of Mohamed Salah rejoined the group earlier this week. 

Salah could feature

Salah, 32, is among the players who could be involved on Friday,and Harvey Elliott, Curtis Jones, Jarell Quansah, Stefan Bajcetic, Tyler Morton and Fabio Carvalho are also tipped to be involved. 

Liverpool embark on their pre-season tour of the United States next week, facing Real Betis in Pittsburgh on July 26. 

The Reds will then play games against Arsenal in Philadelphia and Manchester United in South Carolina, rounding out their games stateside. 

Slot takes charge of a Liverpool team at Anfield for the first time on August 11 in a friendly against Sevilla before the Premier League campaign begins in earnest. 

The Dutchman will be without around 11 first-team players for the pre-season campaign.