Liverpool v Bournemouth live: Premier League team news, line-ups and latest updates as 2025/26 season kicks off at Anfield

Richard Jolly is at Anfield for The Independent tonight:

“Liverpool have made a new signing today, in Giovanni Leoni from Parma for £26m. Four of their earlier arrivals make their Premier League debuts for their new club (and, in three cases, for any club) in Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike, Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez. Compared to the Community Shield, Alexis Mac Allister is in for Curtis Jones. Bournemouth give three arrivals debuts, in Djordje Petrovic, Adrien Truffert and Bafobe Diakite.”

Bournemouth haven’t tweeted their line-up, but here it is:

Petrovic; Smith, Diakite, Senesi, Truffert; Adams, Scott; Brooks, Tavernier, Semenyo; Evanilson.

Subs: Dennis, Araujo, Soler, Kroupi, Hill, Traore, Billing, Winterburn, Rees-Dottin.

The Liverpool line-up tonight is as expected.

Alisson; Frimpong, Konate, Van Dijk, Kerkez; Mac Allister, Szoboszlai; Salah, Wirtz, Gakpo; Ekitike.

Subs: Mamardashvili, Gomez, Endo, Chiesa, Jones, Elliott, Robertson, Nyoni, Ngumoha.

The two line-ups will be confirmed in just a few minutes…

Slot continued to reinforce his squad, confirming on Thursday that the club had agreed a deal to sign 18-year-old defender Giovanni Leoni from Parma.

While no financial details were disclosed, British media reported the fee for the Serie A player at €26m.

Leoni will immediately join the first team, with the club ruling out any possibility of a loan move.

The teenager will join Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate and Joe Gomez – who is a doubt tonight having recently returned from an Achilles injury – among Slot’s centre-back options and shore up a back line that showed frailties during pre-season.

You’ve got about 15 minutes to finalise your Fantasy Premier League team – here are some tips for gameweek 1 and the season ahead:

Porto are also interested in the Scotland international but the likelihood is that he opts to stay in the Premier League.

Doak has been a target for a host of other clubs this summer, with Wolves, West Ham and Leeds among his other suitors.

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot believes his team are too honest for their own good but he does not want them to change in their defence of their Premier League title.

The Dutchman said he often “blamed” them for not taking a genuine foul when they had the option but also felt their positive approach was in part responsible for their success last season.

“If there is one team in the league that is, in my opinion, the most honest when we play – I sometimes blame them that they never try to make from a foul a little bit more – and never dives and never time delays and all these kind of things, then it is us,” said Slot.

“In the (Community Shield) game against Palace they hold Florian (Wirtz) in midfield and he didn’t fall over and the referee says ‘If you don’t fall, I don’t give a free-kick’, which is a little bit weird.

“Than a fraction later they fell down in a moment which wasn’t even a foul and the referee thought ‘Oh, he fell down so it probably is a foul’. We had much more ball possession than Palace but we made 13 fouls and they made five. That tells you also about who we are.”

Our senior football correspondent Richard Jolly wrote this week:

Perhaps Florian Wirtz’s £100m price tag brought it anyway, even before his manager mentioned the two dominant players of their generation and one of the greatest in Liverpool’s history. And, as Wirtz prepares to make his Premier League debut, while Slot believes the German could take time to adjust to the particular tactical demands of his team, he does not feel youth or inexperience will would be mitigating factors.

But then Slot thinks Wirtz has the mental strength to cope; perhaps that is why he was unafraid of giving Liverpool’s new No 7 the challenge of emulating three players with more than 2,000 goals between them; albeit not by actually scoring 2,000 goals.