Arne Slot has already decided two players will not feature during Liverpool’s friendly against Arsenal

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Liverpool are getting ready for their second pre-season outing in the USA this Thursday.

The Reds kicked off their pre-season tour with a relatively routine 1-0 win over Real Betis in Pittsburgh.

With Liverpool now travelling to Philadelphia, a sell-out crowd is expected for their match against Premier League rivals Arsenal at Lincoln Financial Field.

Arne Slot has some decisions to make about his line-up after what he saw against Betis. Liverpool fans were blown away by Trey Nyoni, for example, and it will be interesting to see if he gets a start.

With three returning faces since Saturday’s victory, though, there will not be room for everyone in the Liverpool squad.

Arne Slot makes decision over returning stars

Slot chose to use 23 players during the win over Betis. As the season draws ever nearer, we’d expect that to lessen slightly against Arsenal.

The Gunners are of course the Premier League runners-up and will pose a real challenge for Slot and his new-look team.

As a result, it could be expected that the new head coach might want to go as strong as he possibly can for this one.

As all three have now trained with the team following their arrivals, that would surely include handing Ibrahima Konate, Ryan Gravenberch and Diogo Jota their first game under his leadership.

READ MORE: Gary McAllister blown away by what Mo Salah was doing in Liverpool training

But according to the Liverpool ECHO, Slot has already made the call that neither Konate or Gravenberch will play any part against Arsenal.

Instead, the pair, who only arrived on Tuesday, will reportedly spend the time ‘building up their fitness’ in preparation for the new campaign.

It’s said to be ‘unclear’ at the moment whether Konate or Gravenberch will be ready to feature against Manchester United on Sunday.

In terms of Jota, it’s also claimed to be ‘unknown’ whether or not the forward will get a run out during either game with Arsenal or United.

How will Liverpool line up vs Arsenal?

Given that all three of the new arrivals are unlikely or definite not to play against Arsenal, we wouldn’t foresee too many changes for Liverpool on Thursday.

The eleven that Slot went with to play Betis was probably his strongest team at that point in time.

There may be a slight question mark over the use of Harvey Elliott and Fabio Carvalho, but there aren’t too many options to replace them.

One thing that will have to be addressed is the issue of Curtis Jones. Jones was back in training for Liverpool on Tuesday but it’s unlikely that a risk will be taken over his fitness.

As a result, we could see Nyoni come in after his impressive display on Saturday. Failing that, perhaps it’s time for Stefan Bajcetic to be unleashed once again. Let’s see what Arne goes for.