Darwin Nunez, Jordan Henderson & the six Liverpool players with points to prove during pre-season

Liverpool are back! Well, at the AXA Training Centre at least, with pre-season training having got under way earlier this week. The players are returning in dribs and drabs, owing to their various international commitments in recent weeks - Harvey Elliott and Curtis Jones, for example, have yet to appear because of their involvement in England's triumph at the Under-21s European Championship, which was only wrapped up on Saturday night.

However, Jurgen Klopp expects to have an almost full-strength squad for their German training camp, ahead of next Wednesday's first friendly, against Karlsruher. Liverpool's first competitive fixture, the Premier League opener clash with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, is still more than a month away but you can be sure that several Reds will be determined to hit the ground running in pre-season.

Indeed, after a trying season that saw Liverpool fail to qualify for the Champions League, a significant number of players have plenty to prove ahead of the start of the 2023-24 campaign on August 13...