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• Szoboszlai 'loving' midfield unity with Mac Allister and Gravenberch

  Liverpool's Dominik Szoboszlai "loves" playing alongside Alexis Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberch in Arne Slot's new-look midfield.

  Szoboszlai had an up and down first season at Liverpool following a big-money switch from RB Leipzig.

  The Hungary international has started eight of Liverpool's nine matches this season, including Wednesday's 2-0 win over Bologna in the Champions League.

  Szoboszlai has formed a strong midfield trio alongside Mac Allister and Gravenberch, and he is revelling excelling in the unit.

  He told Liverpool's official website: "I love to play with them. I said it before, a lot of qualities what these two have – but the whole team [as well].

  "The midfield is not enough. Of course it's an important role but we need everybody, we need the bench as well, we need the whole squad because there's going to be times where it's going to be hard and I think there are still 60 games to come!"

  Slot has been shortlisted for the Premier League's Manager of the Month award in September.

  Liverpool sit top of the standings with 15 points, having won all but one of their league matches under Slot, losing 1-0 to Nottingham Forest in September.

  "If you take the Nottingham Forest game away then it's a perfect start," added Szoboszlai.

  "We are top of the league and we have to continue like this."

  The Reds take on Crystal Palace in Saturday's early kick-off in the Premier League.

  Slot is looking to become just the fourth manager in Premier League history to win each of his first four away games in the competition after Felipe Scolari (first eight), John Gregory (five) and Bobby Gould (four).

  PLAYERS TO WATCH

  Crystal Palace - Jean-Philippe Mateta

  Mateta has scored 15 goals in his last 11 home games for Palace in all competitions, netting multiple goals in five of these 11 appearances (four braces, one hat-trick).

  Liverpool - Mohamed Salah

  Salah has scored in all three of Liverpool’s Premier League away games so far this season.

  There have been nine previous occasions of a player scoring in his side's first four on the road in a single campaign – Salah could be the first player to do so twice (also in 2021-22).

  MATCH PREDICTION: LIVERPOOL WIN

  Liverpool have won all three of their Premier League away games this season – only in 1990-91 and 2019-20 have they ever won their opening four away games in a league campaign.

  Palace, on the other hand, remain winless in their six Premier League games so far this season (D3 L3). Only in 1992-93 (eight), 1994-95 (seven), 2004-05 (seven) and 2017-18 (seven) have they gone longer without a win from the start of a top-flight campaign, being relegated at the end of the first three of those.

  In 30 previous Premier League meetings between Palace and Liverpool, 14 have been won by the away side (47%). This is the highest away win ratio of any of the 109 fixtures to be played 30+ times in the competition's history.

  Palace have conceded more Premier League goals against Liverpool than they have against any other opponent both overall (69) and at home (38). Indeed, the Reds are responsible for the Eagles' two biggest home defeats in the competition’s history (6-1 in August 1994, 7-0 in December 2020).

  Each of Liverpool's last four Premier League defeats against Crystal Palace have come at Anfield – they are unbeaten in their last nine at Selhurst Park (W8 D1) since a 3-1 loss in November 2014.

  Palace have lost 11 of their last 14 Premier League meetings with Liverpool (W1 D2), though that sole victory was in their last such meeting at Anfield in April.

  OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

  Crystal Palace - 18.5%

  Liverpool - 60%

  Draw - 21.6%

• 'Now we think about what's next' – Messi switches focus to MLS Cup

  Lionel Messi set his sights on MLS Cup success after leading Inter Miami to the Supporters' Shield.

  Messi scored twice as Miami beat the Columbus Crew 3-2 on Wednesday and secured the Supporters' Shield for the first time in their history.

  The regular-season points record in MLS is also on the cards for Miami, though they must win their remaining two games before the playoffs in order to surpass the tally of 73 set by the New England Revolution in 2021.

  And Messi is now focused on the next task at hand.

  "We suffered until the end," Messi told MLS Season Pass. "It shows what this team is about."

  In quotes reported by BBC Sport, Messi said: "The first objective has been achieved and now we have to think about what's next.

  "The first round is three games but then it's one game and anything can happen. But we have the great advantage of playing all the games at home, which is what we were looking for. We are very strong at home."

  Messi's sentiment was echoed by Miami coach Gerardo Martino.

  He said: "We reached the objective.

  "We have good moments in the game, suffering moments in the game, and it happens to everybody to be able to achieve something.

  “Now we can say, with our results and our game, we’re able to think that we've gotten to a higher level. I am not one of these people that strictly goes by results, that chases results. We are in a construction period and a building period, something similar.

  "We are in the process of creating that thing, a franchise that thinks of more and that gets to win more than lose. And this is very essential, this is very important, that we've changed, and done so in a very short time. With today, we've got 20 wins in the league, and at other times we couldn't have thought of that. To change that dynamic for us is very important."

• Simeone takes positives but Oblak slams 'pitiful' Atletico performance

  Jan Oblak hit out at a "pitiful" performance from Atletico Madrid after their 4-0 loss to Benfica in the Champions League.

  Benfica recorded their joint-biggest victory in a Champions League home match (alongside 5-1 vs Club Brugge in March 2023), as Atletico suffered their heaviest ever defeat to Portuguese opposition in the competition.

  Atletico had only four shots, failing to get any of them on target, and mustered just 0.24 expected goals (xG).

  Benfica, on the other hand, had 19 shots and accumulated 4.46 xG.

  While Diego Simeone believed there were positives to take, Oblak, who made six saves to keep the scoreline from getting even more humiliating, was far more scathing of Atletico's display in Lisbon.

  "It's pitiful to lose like this, it's not a good image to give and there's not much more to say. We weren't good today, to say the least," Oblak told Movistar Plus.

  "Sometimes games like this happen, but we can't afford it because we gave a woeful impression today. I don't have a single positive thing I can say today.

  "We didn't show up and there's not much more to say. Nobody is saved from what happened today, we have to accept it and move forward."

  Simone accepted Atletico "played badly", but did feel it was not all doom and gloom.

  "I always like to think positively and I think it's a good opportunity to keep improving," Simeone told Movistar Plus.

  "We had been doing a very good job, today we didn't play the game we expected, but we have to keep going.

  "We played badly. We have to accept that. We didn't play well, the substitutions didn't give us the spark that they gave us at other times. We played badly, they were better and we have to accept that.

  "There was no lack of tension, attitude or desire to run, we just played badly and when you play badly you are exposed to losses like this.

  "We had been doing a very good job and today the game that you don't want to see appeared.

  "Some nights are not good and we have to accept them and try to learn from what we had to go through today and recover energy for Sunday's LaLiga game [at Real Sociedad]."