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Premier League champions Liverpool take on FA Cup winners Crystal Palace in the FA Community Shield on Sunday afternoon, with plenty of intriguing talking points around both sides heading into the season's curtain raiser at Wembley…

Can Slot get the champions' balance right?

One thing that jumped out on Liverpool's pre-season tour of Asia and will have worried head coach Arne Slot was just how vulnerable the Premier League champions were to pacy breaks by their opponents.

AC Milan destroyed the Reds and their albeit makeshift back line with three counter-attacking goals in a 4-2 win in Hong Kong, while even Yokohama F.

Liverpool will travel down south this weekend with questions over whether they, despite having already splashed out almost £300m on new players this summer, still need to enter the transfer market again in order to bring in a defender.

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The Reds have injury worries over defenders Joe Gomez and Conor Bradley, who are both in a race against time to feature on Sunday, while Jarell Quansah has joined Bayer Leverkusen in a £35m deal.

That meant the Liverpool boss being forced to utilise the likes of left-back Robertson and even midfielders Trey Nyoni and Wataru Endo as makeshift centre backs during pre-season, which may explain why in their second friendly encounter on Monday, both Athletic Club goals came from set plays.

"Two set-piece goals is not what you want, especially when you face Crystal Palace next week," Slot admitted after the Bilbao win.

"But it's true that Jarell Quansah left and we haven't replaced him yet."

Intriguingly, however, one player Slot has reportedly been monitoring to fill that gap at the back is Marc Guehi, who will line up in central defence for Palace on Sunday, giving Liverpool sporting director Richard Hughes the perfect chance to run his eye over the England international.

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Even though the England U17 international is not eligible to sign a professional contract until he turns 17 at the end of this month, Slot has already shown he is not afraid to give youth a chance since taking over at Anfield, with the club keen to leave a pathway for him into the first-team squad.

And if Liverpool are in need of a goal this weekend, then it would be no surprise at all were Slot to turn first to the pacy wide man to make an impact from the bench, especially given how dangerous he has been running at tiring defences this summer, while Wembley's vast open spaces should also be to his liking.

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Highlights from the Premier League match between Liverpool and Crystal Palace