Sam Austin

Premier League 2022/23 Season: A Preview of Liverpool FC

Ahead of the start of the 2022/23 Premier League season, which begins on Friday 5th August 2022, Sam Austin, the train's resident Liverpool supporter provides an overview of the club heading into the new season. Sam provides the details of Liverpool behind the scenes during the summer, his expectations for Jurgen Klopp's side in the league, and selects his top considerations for your FPL team heading into Gameweek 1. All aboard.

Overview: Liverpool FC Jürgen Klopp embarks on his eighth season as Liverpool manager by looking to challenge Manchester City once again for the Premier League title. After missing out on the final day of the season for the title, and then losing the Champions League final against Real Madrid in Paris, nothing but a major honour will be regarded as a successful season for the German and his electric team. Lets see how they stack up for the upcoming season where they face Fulham on Gameweek 1 this coming Saturday 12:30pm. Transfers In: Darwin Núñez | Benfica | £64mil + Add-ons | FWD | FPL Price: £9.0mil Calvin Ramsay | Aberdeen | £4mil + Add-ons | DEF | FPL Price: £4.0mil Fabio Carvalho | Fulham | £5mil + Add-ons | MID | FPL Price: £5.5mil Transfers Out: Sadio Mane | Bayern Munich | £27.5mil Divock Origi | AC Milan | Free Lloris Karius | Free agent Takumi Minamino | AS Monaco | £13mil Ben Woodburn | Nottingham Forest | £16mil Ben Davies | Rangers | £3mil New Players: Will they play? Darwin Núñez will be a starter throughout the season, you don’t spend big on a forward after selling Mane to then bench him. I can see rotation with Firmino from time to time, but Nunez is locked on to start for Liverpool. Fabio Carvalho is a versatile player who can play both in midfield and on the wing, he may start a few games this season due to Champions League rotation, but he will mostly be sitting on the bench and coming on with 20 minutes to go. Carvalho will most likely take Minamino’s space in the team and mostly be featured in cup competitions. Calvin Ramsay is a full-back deputy to Trent Alexander-Arnold, and the right-back will get a couple of starts and then mostly come on occasionally if Trent needs a rest and will mostly be a cup player like Tsmikas is for Robertson on the left-hand side.

Pre-Season Results & Returns Manchester United 4-0 Liverpool Liverpool 2-0 Crystal Palace RB Leipzig 0-5 Liverpool Red Bull Salzburg 1-0 Liverpool Liverpool 3-1 Manchester City (Community Shield) Liverpool 0-3 Strasbourg It wasn’t the best pre-season, mostly because Liverpool heavily rotated in all three of their losses. They did win the Community Shield against Man City, which is arguably the best representation of their team going into the season. Four players scored in pre-season: Darwin Núñez x 5 Mohamad Salah x 3 Trent Alexander-Arnold x 1 Jordan Henderson x 1 2022/23 Premier League Expectations: Liverpool are aiming to win the Premier League for the second time under Jürgen Klopp, as them and Man City are both aiming for another set of 90pts+ season. They are also aiming for both their Goalkeeper Alisson winning the Golden Glove, and a forward (most likely Salah) winning the Golden Boot. Liverpool won both awards last season, Alisson tied with Ederson last season for the Golden Glove, and Salah tied with Spurs’ Hueng-Min Son for the Golden Boot with 23 goals in 2021/22. 2022/23 FPL Expectations: Liverpool have scored the second most goals in the last five seasons, so there is the impetus that they will continue that trend, with only Manchester City ahead of them. Liverpool is both great at scoring goals and defensive contributions, if you look at their defence you can see that they are capable of big defensive returns: Clean Sheets: Last Five Seasons 21/2022: 21 | 1st 20/2021: 12 | 9th 19/2020: 15 | 3rd 18/2019: 21 | 1st 17/2018| 17 | 3rd Liverpool have had the top FPL defender and midfielder last season with Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mo Salah taking top spots. Mo Salah has also been the top midfielder twice, breaking the points record in the 2018/19 season with an unprecedented 303pts in the season he broke the Premier League goal record in a single season.

Top FPL Considerations: Mo Salah | MID| £13.0mil Trent Alexander-Arnold | DEF | £7.5mil Andrew Robertson | DEF | £7.0mil Alisson | GK | £5.5mil Darwin Núñez | FWD | £9.0mil Luis Diaz | MID | £8.0mil Liverpool’s problem is that their best options are wide players, their midfield is there to settle the ship and distribute the ball, their full-backs attack, and their wingers cut in to score. Núñez is a wildcard this season but based on pre-season he will get lots of goals in this system. During the Community Shield win both full backs would have gotten fantasy points, Salah got a goal and assist, and the same with Núñez. Luis Diaz is the differential option from the team as he still finds his footing, and in the shadow of Salah most people will overlook him for Gameweek 1. Best Three? If I had to pick three for my FPL team on the opening day versus Fulham I would go for Salah, Alexander-Arnold, and Núñez.

Gameweek 1: Predicted Line-up (Liverpool) Formation: 4-3-3 GK: Alisson LB: Andrew Robertson CB: Virgil van Dijk CB: Joel Matip RB: Trent Alexander-Arnold CDM: Fabinho CM: Thiago CM: Jordan Henderson LW: Luis Diaz ST: Darwin Núñez RW: Mohamad Salah Any contention? The only two spots that could be reversed are Roberto Firmino for Darwin Núñez, and then Ibou Konaté for Joel Matip. Gameweek 1: Prediction vs. Fulham Liverpool is primed to start the season strong, and here is what we are going for on the opening weekend: Fulham 0-3 Liverpool Goals: Salah, Diaz, Núñez Assists: Diaz, Salah, Alexander-Arnold

Want to know more about The Hype Train?

The Hype Train is an entertainment website founded in 2015, specialising in general football and Fantasy sports reporting, starting with Fantasy Premier League (FPL), before expanding to MLS Fantasy coverage in 2018.

We pride ourselves in providing beautiful graphics, statistics, in-depth analytical reporting and free weekly insight for hopeful players attempting to climb rankings tables. We are also occasional media reviewers, with a keen interest to review games, live sport, and professional wrestling.

In 2019, Hype Train Football Club was formed, becoming the first Fantasy Football website to take to the field. HTFC is a socially active team across social and web channels, providing regular match highlights, match reports, comprehensive player statistics and unique player profiles. We won both Goal of the Season Awards in the Berkshire and County FA regions, with Callum Parr-Jones winning the Berks & Bucks FA award, whilst Martin King won the PlaySport UK award.

In 2021, we formed the Reading Sunday Social League (RSSL), a competitive Sunday League involving 8 teams in its debut season. During the 2021/22 season, we won our first-ever trophy, lifting the East Berkshire Football League's Presidents Cup!

The Hype Train were nominated and shortlisted for the 'Best Football Blog' in 2016 by the Football Bloggers Association at their annual Football Blogging Awards (The FBA's), and were again shortlisted as a finalist in 2019 in the 'Best Fantasy Football Blog' category.

You can follow us on Twitter, Like us on Facebook, follow Hype Train FC on Instagram, subscribe to our YouTube channel for exclusive content, visit our club's dedicate website, or visit our website here at www.thehypetrain.co.uk