Liverpool play their first game of pre-season on Sunday which is set to be an incredibly emotional day.

The Reds will take to the field to face Preston in their first outing since the tragic death of Diogo Jota.

Tributes will be paid to Jota before and during the match, and it remains to be seen how Liverpool players react to the sadness that will be brought on once again.

In the midst of the pain of losing Jota, though, Liverpool fans should not feel guilty about being happy to see the football back.

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It has been a difficult period for everyone connected to the club, and as something close to normality is resumed, the wounds of the fanbase can slowly begin to heal, even if those of Jota and Andre Silva’s family, tragically, will not.

As Liverpool begin the road to their Premier League title defence, here are three things to look forward to on an otherwise sombre day in Preston.

Photo by Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images

Pre-season is usually all about seeing new signings up close and in the flesh for the first time.

And, this year, Liverpool have pushed the boat out in that respect.

Florian Wirtz is the headline act, but fans are also desperate to see how Arne Slot intends to use Jeremie Frimpong.

Sunday will be the first glimpse of that.

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Giorgi Mamardashvili is also finally a Red and is likely to play some part at Deepdale, while fans have been excited to see Milos Kerkez ever since links to the left-back first emerged.

Some may get more playing time than others on Sunday, but with three of the four arriving as potential starters, they will want to hit the ground running.

With the likes of Mamardashvili and Kerkez, it is clear where they are being brought in to play.

But for Frimpong and Wirtz, there is greater intrigue.

READ MORE: Liverpool’s predicted XI vs Preston as Florian Wirtz debut forces new change of position

The Germany international is a potential match-winner, but it is not immediately clear where Slot is planning to play him.

Wirtz’s best position is arguably in the attacking midfield role, but with Dominik Szoboszlai a key player for the Liverpool head coach, there are question marks over how it all fits together.

Those won’t be fully answered on Sunday, but we will get the first impression of how Slot is planning to slide Wirtz into his team.

As we are yet to see any footage at all from pre-season, it has been hard to ascertain which players from the Liverpool academy have been given a platform in training.

Because Slot has almost the full Liverpool squad available to him, there may be less youth than usual in the group.

The flip side of that is that if young players have been chosen to make the step up, then it must mean that Slot really rates them highly.

Fans may already have some kind of idea of who these chosen few could be, with the likes of Trey Nyoni, James McConnell and Ben Doak regulars amongst the first team.

Stefan Bajcetic is injured and will not play, but we might have a sighting of some surprise talents during Sunday’s first outing.