£20m Liverpool player tipped to start on first day of the season, Szoboszlai benched

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Jason McAteer has tipped Jurgen Klopp to start Jordan Henderson over Dominik Szoboszlai on the first game of the Premier League season.

It’s now just over a month until Liverpool kick off their campaign away at Chelsea on August 13th. With Szoboszlai joining Alexis Mac Allister through the Anfield arrivals door, plenty will be expecting both to start at Stamford Bridge.

However, McAteer isn’t quite so sure. Speaking to The Debrief podcast yesterday, the former Reds midfielder said he thinks Klopp will only start one of his new boys.

“Szoboszlai I think will take a bit of time. If you’re saying to me will he gamble on Mac Allister, I think yeah, because of his experience in the Premier League, but he’s a very clever player as well,” said the 52-year-old. “I think he will get it maybe a bit quicker than some of the other signings that we’ve had.

“For that midfield if you’re asking me to put my hat on it, for Chelsea away I’m going Jordan Henderson, I’m going Fabinho and I’m going Mac Allister.”

Predicting Liverpool’s new midfield

Given the business already done, there will be huge excitement to see Liverpool’s first XI of the campaign next month.

But McAteer is perhaps right, those expecting Jurgen to flood the team with new faces may end up being disappointed.

It isn’t the manager’s style to change so much so quickly. Chucking two new players into a three-man midfield doesn’t seem like a very Jurgen Klopp thing to do.

Having said that, Liverpool quite obviously need a change. It’s also vital that they start the new campaign well. An away game at Chelsea to kick off the season isn’t ideal and they’ll need to be at their strongest.

Given that Szoboszlai and Mac Allister will both have a full pre-season with Liverpool, they should be pretty up to speed in a month’s time.

It will obviously take much longer until we see them at their best and they’re both still young players. But we can’t afford another start to the season like the last one. Do that, and confidence and momentum will be hard to get back.

So, Klopp must find the balance. In our opinion, the team that plays Chelsea must be the strongest one at Klopp’s disposal. At present, we’d say that includes both Szoboszlai and Mac Allister.