Liverpool team vs Wolves confirmed as Alisson Becker returns and Luis Diaz decision made
Arne Slot has made wholesale changes from the Carabao Cup win over West Ham United midweek, as expected, with the likes of Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk coming back into the side from the start.
Liverpool beat West Ham 5-1 with Cody Gakpo scoring twice and producing a Player of the Match performance. But the Dutch winger is not named in the team; Luis Diaz comes in to play instead of him on the left flank. Diaz is joined up top by former Wolves striker Diogo Jota, with Salah playing off the right.
In midfield, the usual trio of Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai are restored, with Curtis Jones and Wataru Endo dropping out. That has been Slot's go-to three in the center of the field so far.
Michael Owen makes Federico Chiesa prediction after watching him on first Liverpool start
Alexis Mac Allister tipped to play new Liverpool role as $47m ace could take exciting step
Liverpool is completely changed across the backline too with Andy Robertson, who scored a late winner at Molineux last season, coming in at left-back. Van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate are the center-backs while Trent Alexander-Arnold is at full-back. Alisson Becker returns in goal having missed the last two fixtures with a minor injury. Darwin Nunez is out with illness.
Slot was asked about Wolves during his pre-match press conference. "I don't think it represents the way they played and they had a very tough fixture list in the first five games," he said, referring to their results so far this season under Gary O'Neil.
"I think they played Arsenal away, Newcastle away, [Aston] Villa away, Chelsea at home, so that's [a] more difficult schedule than we had, for example. You always have to take this into account.
"Of course I had to watch a few games of them because we play them tomorrow and I can see that even the games were very tight and they deserved more than they got a few times. I think they will be fine during the season — hopefully not tomorrow — but they will be fine in the end of the season."
Liverpool team in full: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson; Szoboszlai, Gravenberch, Mac Allister; Salah, Jota, Diaz. Substitutes: Kelleher, Tsimikas, Gomez, Quansah, Bradley, Jones, Endo, Gakpo, Chiesa.