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As well as heralding the start of the new Premier League campaign, August will be full of transfer activity, friendly matches and an unusual Champions League draw.
August will be a seriously busy period that will get progressively more packed as the month comes to a close.
With everything still to do in the transfer market and at least two more friendlies to play ahead of the Premier League beginning, we’ve put all the key dates in one place.
Here are the key dates for your diary in August.
August 3 – Man United (Columbia)
Liverpool take on Man United in front of an expected 77,00 fans at the Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, South Carolina on Saturday night.
For UK viewers, the last match of the Reds’ USA tour will kick off at 12.45am on August 4.
With Diogo Jota having returned to action against Arsenal, we can expect to see Ibrahima Konate and Ryan Gravenberch make their first appearance of pre-season before Liverpool fly home.
August 4 – back to Liverpool
The Reds’ squad will fly home to Merseyside soon after their match against Man United, bringing to an end their 11 days in the USA.
Upon their return to the AXA Training Centre, the rest of the squad will join their teammates.
That means a return for Virgil van Dijk, Cody Gakpo, Alisson, Luis Diaz, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joe Gomez and Alexis Mac Allister.
August 10 – possible friendly vs. Las Palmas
This fixture hasn’t been confirmed yet, but reports emerged recently that Liverpool are in discussions about playing Spanish side Las Palmas.
Unlike their match the following day, though, this match would be a behind-closed-doors affair.
It isn’t unusual for teams to play on consecutive days in pre-season. The last time Liverpool did so was in 2021, when the Reds had a similar scenario, drawing with Athletic Bilbao before beating Osasuna at Anfield.
August 11 – Sevilla (Anfield)
Liverpool host Sevilla in their final pre-season friendly as a warm-up for their fixture against Ipswich exactly six days later.
Slot even had this game rescheduled to kick off at 12.30pm in order to mirror the time of day at which Liverpool will play their Premier League opener.
After fans in the east of the USA had their chance to see Slot’s Reds in person, this acts as the first opportunity for locals and it will be a youthful crowd at Anfield, with prices lowered for the match.
August 17 – Ipswich (A)
This is where everything really gets going.
While pre-season can give an indicator of which players are looking sharpest, we won’t really know how Liverpool are shaping up until they have taken to the Portman Road pitch on August 17.
Barring subsequent injuries, Liverpool will have a full complement of players for this one, though we could see some sit it out having had far fewer pre-season minutes than others.
August 25 – Brentford (H)
While Slot will have been at Anfield for the friendly against Sevilla, this will be the first time he properly experiences the home crowd from the dugout.
It won’t be the first time he has been at Anfield for a competitive game, though – he attended Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Tottenham in February, 2017 as a guest of Pep Lijnders.
August 29 – UCL draw
Liverpool are back in the Champions League after last season’s third-place finish and they will find out their league-stage opponents on August 29.
We won’t know the full lineup for the league stage until the night before the draw, when the last play-off match is decided, but we do know the Reds will be favourably positioned.
Liverpool will be in a ‘league’ with the 35 other clubs involved, but will play only eight of them. We say only but it’s two more opponents than the old Champions League group stage format; ties are randomly selected for home or away.
The Reds should be ranked as a ‘Pot One’ club due to their high UEFA coefficient ranking. The first matches of the newly expanded competition will then be played on September 17, 18 and 19.
August 30 – Transfer deadline day
While we hope Liverpool’s business will be concluded by the time transfer deadline day comes around, at the moment it does seem the Reds will leave their deals until late in the window, both in terms of incomings and outgoings.
The deadline for registering new players for Liverpool is 11pm (BST) on August 30, and it is the same for selling players to the majority of big footballing nations in Europe.
However, they will have until September 2 to sell players to the Netherlands and Portugal.
Last summer, Liverpool completed the signing of Ryan Gravenberch on the last day of the window, though the deal had already been pretty much wrapped up, meaning they avoided a last-minute scramble.
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