Liverpool come into the first Premier League match of 2020/21 with their strongest key players all involved from the off.
Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.5m) has not turned out for the Reds since the end of last season, missing out on pre-season friendlies through injury, but he starts against Leeds United.
While he was not fit enough to go on a summer tour with his club, the right-back did get some game-time in while away on international duty with England.
Naturally, he is joined in the back-four by the usual suspects of Andrew Robertson (£7.0m), Virgil van Dijk (£6.5m) and Joe Gomez (£5.5m) while Neco Williams (£4.0m) misses out on a place in the match-day squad entirely.
Mohamed Salah (£12.0m), the second-most-captained player of Gameweek 1, starts on the right-hand side of Liverpool’s front-three, as do Sadio Mané (£12.0m) and Roberto Firmino (£9.5m).
In their first Premier League game for 16 years, Leeds line-up in Marcelo Biela’s favoured 4-1-4-1 formation.
The key Fantasy talking point is a start at centre-back for Pascal Struijk (£4.0m), although it remains unclear how long he will last in the team. The budget defender takes the place of club captain Liam Cooper (£4.5m) who is unexpectedly absent from the squad today.
The Scottish international’s late injury means a centre-back pairing of Struijk and new signing Robin Koch (£4.5m) for Leeds, while Stuart Dallas (£4.5m) and Luke Ayling (£4.5m) are set to staff the full-back positions.
Patrick Bamford (£5.5m) has been trusted with a start at Anfield, keeping new signing Rodrigo Moreno (£6.0m) on the bench while key man Pablo Hernández (£6.0m) is also in from the beginning, joined in midfield by Mateusz Klich (£5.5m), Jack Harrison (£5.5m) and Helder Costa (£5.5m).
Liverpool XI: Alisson; Robertson, van Dijk, Gomez, Alexander-Arnold; Keïta, J Henderson, Wijnaldum; Mané, Firmino, Salah.
Leeds United XI: Meslier; Dallas, Struijk, Koch, Ayling; Phillips; Costa, Hernández, Klich, Harrison; Bamford.
3 years, 7 months agoFor a Mitchell bencher, McCarthy and Ings owner, can anyone briefly sum up the Palace and Saints match please?
What if anything to do with the Saints pair might be a thought this week.