Questions asked of Liverpool's SURPRISE announcement

Liverpool raised eyebrows with a squad decision for this summer. Just why have they gone down this route?

Liverpool kicked off their pre-season on Sunday with a friendly against Preston North End. The Reds managed to raise eyebrows before the fixture, though, with an official announcement.

Diogo Jota: Thank you

They’ve handed out temporary squad numbers to the new signings, something that I don’t remember happening before. It means we don’t actually know what they’ll all wear next season.

Giorgi Mamardashvili will wear number 55 for the friendlies, with Freddie Woodman in 56, Milos Kerkez 57, Florian Wirtz 58, Jeremie Frimpong 59 and Armin Pecsi 60.

Those won’t be the numbers this season, though. So why is this happening? We’ve narrowed it down to two possible reasons.

READ MORE: Diogo Jota's legacy is bigger than any of us realised

Liverpool's temporary squad numbers

One reason for this could simply be that Liverpool don't want to announce squad numbers until the new kit is unveiled. The Reds will switch to Adidas from Nike this summer but the contract doesn't start until next month.

Liverpool, then, haven't actually put out their new kit. In fact, it's incredibly difficult to buy the home shirt right now as no more are getting made.

Thus if Liverpool do announce the numbers for Wirtz and co., no one will be able to buy a shirt with his name on the back. So financially, it does make sense to wait a bit here.

The other reason? The numbers might not be set in stone. The likes of Luis Diaz, Ibrahima Konate and Darwin Nunez may leave Liverpool this summer and they have major numbers. Players may fancy taking them if they depart - but they'd need to actually leave before then.

Those numbers becoming available may see quite a few shift around the figure on their back. Numbers nine and seven are as historic as it gets, in fact.

READ MORE: How the gamer celebration became the world's way to honour Diogo Jota

So that's another potential reason for the delay. Of course, the Premier League season starts in a month, so we won't have to wait that much longer before finding out their permanent numbers.

Rest in peace, Diogo Jota.