Liverpool were left to pick the bones out of another disappointing Wembley display after losing in the Community Shield.

One of the Reds’ worst performances of last season came at the national team stadium, as they were beaten in the Carabao Cup final by Newcastle.

And although Sunday’s display against Crystal Palace did not approach those levels of bad, Liverpool will still look back with a degree of concern on Sunday.

Things started very well for Liverpool, however, with Hugo Ekitike curling home a goal just four minutes into his official debut for the Reds.

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The Frenchman was arguably Liverpool’s best player on the day, as he showed some excellent link-up play with Florian Wirtz in particular.

But despite his impressive debut, Ekitike was taken off with 20 minutes left to play.

Asked why he chose to remove his best player on the day after the game, Arne Slot explained his thinking.

Photo by Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images

There were not many positives to come out of Sunday and what was a really wobbly performance from Liverpool.

But Ekitike’s outing was definitely the main piece of good news, and the Reds rather fell apart once he left the pitch.

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According to Slot, though, the decision was made purely as a way of protecting Ekitike against injury before the beginning of the Premier League.

“He had a good impact, but that’s also an example of a player that came one and a half, two weeks ago, so for me with only three or four days before the Friday game, it wouldn’t be smart to play him 90 minutes,” said the Liverpool head coach.

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“We had Federico [Chiesa, on the bench], but he’s not been with us on the Asian tour, so there’s not a lot to replace him [Ekitike] with.

That’s why I took him off, but he had a good game today for sure.”

After the game, Virgil van Dijk claimed that Liverpool need attacking reinforcements in the transfer market.

And, in bemoaning the lack of options on his bench on Sunday,


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