New Liverpool manager Arne Slot is expecting an intense game against a Blues side which makes its return to the Premier League after 22 years having known only positives over the last couple of years.
Town host the Reds at Portman Road in tomorrow’s 12.30pm kick-off, the game is live on TNT Sports, with Slot making his English top-flight bow having been recruited from Feyenoord in his native Netherlands after Jürgen Klopp’s departure at the end of last season.
Slot, 45, speaking at his pre-match press conference, was asked whether he was looking forward to his first Premier League match.
"Excited, of course, but that’s nothing to do with what you just said,” he reflected. "I think after a pre-season, for a player and also for a manager or a coach, it’s always nice to start the season because that’s what you’ve worked for in the last few weeks.”
Surprisingly, Slot is yet to sign anyone since taking charge but says it’s more important that the existing squad, which finished third in the Premier League last season and won the Carabao Cup, has largely remained intact.
"I think at this moment, the whole team stayed together, we lost Joel Matip and Tiago [Silva] and Adrián, the goalkeeper, but the rest of the team stayed together and that’s a very positive thing,” he said.
"We’re aways talking here about transfers but it’s also a very positive thing that we kept our players.
"They’re in a good place at the moment. I’ve said many times already that Jürgen left the team in a good place and we’re trying to build from there.
"Last season was also a season where they could win a trophy with this team, so we’re hoping and aiming for the same this season, of course.
"It’s not going to be easy because there are a lot of good and strong teams in the Premier League, who have also strengthened their squads, but we’re also looking forward to the challenge.”
Quizzed on whether it’s tougher to prepare for a team which hasn’t been in the Premier League for 22 years, Slot responded: "Not harder than if you had to prepare for a team which was in the Premier League for 22 years because we also saw their games from last season and we saw their games from pre-season.
"I don’t think that’s no more difficult than if they had been in the Premier League for a long time.
"It is true that a for a newly promoted club, there is a lot of positivity around a club like this.
"As people have told me, every game in the Premier League is going to be an intense game and there are no easy games and that is something that we can expect as well tomorrow.
"A promoted team that only have a lot of positives in recent years will come up against us really looking forward to it. But we are really looking forward to the game as well.”