For the fourth consecutive season, Liverpool opened a Premier League campaign facing a promoted side this time against Fulham at Craven Cottage. The Reds are unbeaten in the last three games at the venue.
Liverpool have to settle for a runners-up spot last season just a point making the difference between them and Manchester City winning the league. Fulham, though, breezed past everyone to secure the top spot in the championship and seal promotion to the top-tier as a case.
FUL vs LIV Match Details
Date: Saturday, 6th August 2022
Time: 12:30 (BST)/ 17:00 (IST)
Venue: Craven Cottage, Fulham
FUL vs LIV Match Preview
The cottagers will be in the mix with the big boys again after a year at Championship and will welcome title challengers Liverpool in their backyard. Fulham almost had no bumps in their race for promotion, finishing two points ahead of second-placed Bournemouth and collecting the most number of wins with 27 besting the Cherries again in the same proportion. They also scored over 100 goals with 43 of them scored by striker Mitrovic alone in 44 games with a goal per 89 minutes on the back of an incredible individual season. Now in the bigger scheme of things, Fulham has dove into the transfer market to bring in some solid signings. The capture of Joao Palhinha from Sporting is the highlighted one. There have been other impressive additions like the talented Manor Solomon and experienced Swiss international Kevin Mbabu. Manager Marco Silva’s objective this season will be to stop the rollercoaster ride and stay in the league this season, a massive job to pursue considering the relegation race has become tighter than ever in the last few seasons. Their preseason was sublime with only a loss to show for yet the results matter less when the real campaign gets underway. Last time in the top flight, Fulham struggled to win matches registering only five as they failed to close down an eleven-point difference to safety. One of those wins came at Anfield against a struggling Liverpool team back then with the other fixture resulting in a 1-1 draw at Craven Cottage. However, staying unbeaten over the Reds in that season is a deceiving record to look into the 2022/23 campaign with Liverpool not plagued by such alarming injury problems to key players now. Losing out on the title the last term will give the rage of Klopp’s men to begin things early strongly a force against whom these promising signings could suffer for Fulham in their season opener.
The intent of bringing in free-scoring striker Darwin Nunez is clear. Not only will he replace Sadio Mane but share the duty with Mohammed Salah for goals to fill up the minute gap with Manchester City that restricted Liverpool from winning two Premier League titles just by a point. Club legend Steven Gerrard could not manage Aston Villa to restrict City’s chariot to offer Liverpool the trophy and end his own personal horror of his infamous slip after watching City make their trademark come back to defend their title on the final day of last season. The Reds out of all their dominance in recent seasons have only one league title to show so Klopp will be pushing his side to set the levels early to reclaim the crown from City. The title race will be closed again in the new season because City pulled off their trick in signing the hotly demanded striker Erling Haaland. The German only wishes his side to have the last laugh this time out. Sealing Mohammed Salah to three more seasons at his age of 30 gave another example of the intent the club is now building on. Their double cup success and reaching the Champions League final in the hope of a quadruple last season is never to be undermined. Preparation for the upcoming campaign has produced mixed results in the preseason with losses to Manchester United, FC Salzburg and Strasbourg in between the 3-1 Community Shield win over Manchester City last weekend is not ideal. However, Liverpool have proven before a rough preseason doesn’t change their mind when the real business kicks off. The season-opening trophy triumph over their title rivals has given them the perfect momentum to follow in the first game of the new season. Liverpool have also not lost a single opening week game in the last eight seasons with seven wins and a draw to show. All points to a winning start for Klopp’s men.
Pre-season Form
FUL: DWLW
LIV: LWLWW
FUL vs LIV Team News
Fulham have a series of injury absentees with the big blow coming in the form of Harry Wilson, a former player at Liverpool, who will be absent for two long months with a knee injury. He is joined on the sideline by midfielder Joe Bryan with a broken hand while Nathaniel Chalobah is also unlikely to feature in the opener for an unspecified injury. Loan signing Manor Solomon from Shakhtar Donetsk was only registered as a Fulham player on Monday so he won’t be making the squad for the season opener as is the other loanee Shane Duffy from Brighton. The other signings namely Bernd Leno from Arsenal, Kevin Mbabu from Wolfsburg, Joao Palhinha from Sporting and Andreas Perreira from Manchester United will be handed their official debuts on Friday evening.
Liverpool are stricken with a lot of injury problems in the squad ahead of the season opener. Forward Diogo Jota will be out for a few more weeks with a thigh injury that kept him out for the preseason. So is second-choice goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher. Left-back Kostas Tsimikas will resume training next week after sustaining an injury in the preseason. The bigger blow is defender Ibrahima Konate will not feature for the first part of the 2022/23 season after hurting himself in the last preseason game against Strasbourg. Midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s hamstring injury is serious and he won’t be in action soon with Curtis Jones who will be out for a month. Right back Calvin Ramsey is not close to returning. The positive thing is goalkeeper Alisson has recovered from an abdominal issue and will take his place in goal after missing out on the Community Shield win over Manchester City last weekend. Naby Keita will rejoin the group before the match but will have to take a seat on the bench as Liverpool goes with their trio of captain Jordan Henderson, Fabinho and Thiago Alcantara. Star signing Darwin Nunez is expected to start the game getting the assurance from his manager after coming off the bench to silence his critics with his first goal for the club in Community Shield. Moved from Fulham this summer, Fabio Carvalho will also be offered minutes against his former club at some stage in the game.
FUL vs LIV Predicted Lineups
FUL: Bernd Leno; Kevin Mbabu, Tosin Adarabioyo, Tim Ream, Antonee Robinson; Joao Palhinha, Harrison Reed; Bobby Reid, Andreas Pereira, Neeskens Kebano; Aleksander Mitrovic
LIV: Alisson Becker; Alexander-Arnold, Joel Matip, Van Dijk, Andrew Robertson; Jordan Henderson, Fabinho, Thiago Alcantara; Mohamed Salah, Darwin Nunez, Luis Diaz
FUL vs LIV Head to head
The last meeting between the sides at the venue ended in a 1-1 draw with Bobby Reid’s stunning opener leaving Liverpool trailing for the whole game until Mohamed Salah scored from the spot with ten minutes left on the clock. Liverpool have won the previous two meetings at the Craven Cottage with the home team’s only victory in this matchup coming in 2012 through an own goal scored by Reds defender Martin Skrtel.
FUL vs LIV Dream11 Team Prediction
GK: Alisson (8.5)
DEF: Trent (9.5), Adarabioyo (8.5), Van Dijk (8.5), Robertson (9)
MID: Pereira (8.5), Palhinha (8.5), Fabinho (8.5), Thiago (8.5)
FW: Salah (10.5), Mitrovic (9.5)
