Liverpool supporters were given an insight into how their team could play once the season gets underway on Saturday.
The Reds were in action against AC Milan, as they played the first game of their summer tour of the Far East.
Things did not go exactly to plan for Liverpool, with some sloppy defending leading to a 4-2 defeat in Hong Kong.
Nevertheless, there were still positives from the performance, with the showing of Florian Wirtz standing out in that respect.
Wirtz was fantastic on his first Liverpool outing in front of fans, as he operated as part of a front two with Harvey Elliott.
Elliott has been linked with a move away this summer but a decent 45 minutes showed that he can still be useful for Arne Slot. And according to the 22-year-old himself, he has already struck up a good partnership with Wirtz.
Harvey Elliott enjoying Florian Wirtz partnership
With Darwin Nunez ruled out of the match through injury, and Luis Diaz on the verge of completing a move away, Slot had to be creative with his centre-forward options against Milan.
This led to an experiment previously seen away to Manchester City, when the Liverpool head coach played Dominik Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones as ‘dual No. 10s.’
Wirtz and Elliott are more natural in the role, though, and that showed at times during Saturday’s match.
And speaking to LFCTV about his first experience of playing alongside Wirtz, Elliott said that he is already forming a good bond with the German.
“I think it was just learning to have that relationship with Flo,” he said. “When one drops, one stays high and pins back the defenders. If the ball was on one side, make sure we’re both coming over to support.
“I think we had a really good relationship for the first time playing with each other and I think it clicked really well. I think we had a fair few opportunities and we were able to cause problems.”
Will Elliott and Wirtz play together again?
Wirtz’s arrival was generally deemed to be bad news for Elliott. The pair are footballers in a similar mould and Slot had already suggested that he does not rate the Englishman as highly as others.
Szoboszlai was another who was assumed to be under threat, and yet all three started against Milan.
It worked well too, with the Hungarian supplementing the naturally creative spark shown by Wirtz and Elliott with runs beyond from deep.
However, Slot’s use of Elliott in particular had a feeling of needs must. With Nunez, Diaz and Federico Chiesa missing and Hugo Ekitike unavailable, the Dutch coach had to try something different. The No. 19 fit the bill.
Once other players return and more are potentially brought in, Elliott may not have another chance to build up his partnership with Wirtz.
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