Liverpool
Slot: Squad Quality Intact but Injuries Have Forced Selections
Slot: squad is sufficient; injuries have reduced availability and fuelled Liverpool’s slide. and more
Arne Slot has been clear: he does not view Liverpool’s options as deficient. His recent public criticism was aimed at availability issues rather than a lack of quality after what the club spent in the summer transfer window to bolster a title-winning squad.
Slot pushed back against suggestions he doubted the squad, instead pointing to injuries and disrupted pre-season preparation as the root cause of the current difficulties that have seen Liverpool drop from first to seventh in a matter of weeks.
“We miss nothing,” he began. “I am happy that you asked this question because I am completely happy with the team and with all the quality that we have and I am also completely convinced by the strategy and the policy that we have but that makes the issue—if you call it an issue—is not all of them have had a proper pre-season or have been injured.
Slot explained how absences reduce the effective squad size and force the same players into heavier workloads. “When three or four are injured you go back to 16 players. I am a firm believer that 20 or 21 player is enough but you have to keep them fit as we did last season. We are struggling a bit more to keep them fit, in my opinion, for obvious reasons.
He used individuals to underline the point: “Alex [Isak] is a great example of this. A few others have missed out on pre-season or had injuries during pre-season. It has been more difficult than last season to keep them all available and then if a few of them are not available, it comes down a lot to the same players. Maybe last season we were more lucky and now we are more unlucky.”
The manager was adamant that injury problems should not be an excuse for poor results. “No excuses for our results before people say this,” he clarified. “It is nothing to do with the squad depth, it is how we’ve gone throughout the season in terms of injuries and availability.”
Slot acknowledged he must sometimes take risks to build match fitness, citing his decision-making over player minutes. “Let me use Alex as an example,” he continued. “He had to do a pre-season inside the season and then people will argue, ‘Why do you play him?’ But if I don’t play him, I don’t have him available and we need to have him available or then we have to play Hugo [Ekitiké] every single game.
He also referenced workload comparisons and named players who have been in and out with injuries: “I was with Owen Hargreaves when he made the comparison between the two of them and he showed that one played 34 games last season and the other played 34 and we play 60 over here. That is why I need to get Alex as soon as I can into playing as many games as he can. That has been something not only with him but with a few others as well.
“Jeremie Frimpong has been in and out with injuries quite a few times, same with Conor Bradley so if one is out the other has to play more and that is why I’ve had to play Dominik Szoboszlai a few times in that position.
“That has been something what every team has, so it is not an excuse, but what was a bit different than last season. Last season, they all had one year Premier League experience as a minimum, they were all fit when we started and they stayed fit. Now, they weren’t all fit from the start and some players have to play more than you want them to do and that is a risk of them getting injured as well.
“That is just the situation as it is and we have more than enough good players available to play the game on Saturday, Tuesday and Sunday but I have to take care of them and that’s why I made the decision to not play some a few days ago.”
Liverpool
Slot: Liverpool Will Only Sign in January If It Fits a Longer-Term Plan
Slot: Liverpool will only act in January if transfers are smart, long-term solutions after injuries.
Liverpool face a short-term selection problem after right back Jeremie Frimpong withdrew injured during Wednesday’s Champions League win. With Conor Bradley already sidelined, manager Arne Slot warned the club will not make a kneejerk signing in the remaining days of the January window.
“We as a club always make decisions we at least think are smart decisions,” Slot explained, adding that any addition must fit beyond the immediate need. “We not only look at the short-term, we look at the long-term. It always depends on [if] there are players available that we think can help us and if they are can we afford them … and [if] it is also helpful for the longer-term future because our players come back from injury as well.”
Slot also cautioned against an overstocked roster, noting that “Having a squad with “four right backs, 12 midfielders and three or four No. 9s” is not viable.” The club already regard two of their right backs as among the best in the world, and Slot underlined that both will return to full fitness in the months ahead.
Fabrizio Romano has outlined on YouTube that preliminary market assessments, conducted after Bradley’s injury on Jan. 8, concluded there are “no good right backs” of the “level” Liverpool would demand available in this window. Time is limited: the transfer window closes at 7 p.m. GMT (2 p.m. ET) on Monday and normal fixtures continue across the weekend.
Slot was pragmatic about immediate availability. “Let’s first see how Jeremie is, maybe he is not able to play Saturday, but maybe he is able to play one or two days later,” he said. “We now go into a schedule where we have one game a week, so that would usually mean less injuries—but you are never sure.”
It is Frimpong’s fourth hamstring injury of the season. Liverpool’s automatic qualification for the Champions League round of 16 means no European matches until mid-March, allowing the squad to focus on the Premier League and FA Cup. Their only midweek fixture before March is the Feb. 11 trip to Sunderland, and the reduced schedule should provide more recovery time.
Liverpool
Klopp to Rejoin Dalglish for Liverpool Legends Fixture Against Dortmund
Jürgen Klopp will join Sir Kenny Dalglish’s side for a Liverpool legends match vs Borussia Dortmund.
Jürgen Klopp will return to the Liverpool touchline for a one-off legends fixture, but not as a replacement manager. The German will join Sir Kenny Dalglish’s management team for the charity match against Borussia Dortmund on Mar. 28 (3 p.m. GMT / 10 a.m. ET KO).
Klopp’s involvement ends speculation that a managerial comeback was imminent. He has been extensively linked to a return to coaching despite stating on numerous occasions that he has no desire to take another job of that kind. Real Madrid were strongly linked in the aftermath of Xabi Alonso’s dismissal, and some Liverpool supporters have clamoured for a return to Merseyside as Arne Slot encounters the dreaded ‘second-season syndrome.’
Instead Klopp is heading back to the club he served for eight-and-a-half years to work alongside Dalglish. The pairing will be a notable gathering of Liverpool managerial history: Dalglish, Klopp and Bill Shankly are widely regarded as among the greatest managers to have taken the reins at Anfield. Klopp ended Liverpool’s 30-year wait for a top flight crown, winning the Premier League in 2019–20, and also steered the club to their sixth, and to date last, Champions League win.
Ian Rush and John Aldridge will assist Dalglish and Klopp for the fixture, which will direct 100% of proceeds to the LFC Foundation and Forever Reds. The game will carry extra significance for Klopp, who previously worked as Dortmund’s manager and successfully toppled Bayern Munich in consecutive Bundesliga seasons.
The full squad for the match is not yet complete as names continue to be released. The confirmed participants so far include the goalkeeping trio of Jerzy Dudek, Pepe Reina and Sander Westerveld, plus former captain Sami Hyypiä, Fábio Aurélio, Grégory Vignal and Martin Kelly. Organisers say the list of players will be finalised ahead of the March fixture, with proceeds benefiting the club’s charitable causes.
Liverpool
Gerrard: Slot Faces External Pressure but Retains Board Backing
Gerrard: Slot is ‘under pressure’ but Liverpool hierarchy back him despite a damaging run. this term
Steven Gerrard told TNT Sports that Arne Slot is “I think he is under pressure, for sure,” and that “I think there is a large section of the Liverpool fans that are very frustrated. I think some have had enough.” Gerrard accepted the uncomfortable reality around the manager while agreeing with reporting that the club’s hierarchy are not preparing an immediate change.
The season’s trajectory explains the mood. After the first Merseyside derby of the campaign, a 2–1 win that marked Liverpool’s fifth successive league victory to start the defence of their Premier League crown, results have collapsed. The Reds have taken 21 points from the subsequent 18 top-flight games; Everton can lay claim to 26. Over a span representing almost half a league season, Liverpool have the 12th-best record in the division.
The problems are visible in several areas. Liverpool have conceded three goals on five separate occasions, have nearly lost their most legendary player of the modern era from the club, and were beaten by a Manchester United team led by Ruben Amorim. Amid that run a clear replacement candidate is already noted in the background; Xabi Alonso has been linked previously.
Gerrard argued that the pressure on Slot is primarily external and that the club’s senior figures will provide backing because of recent success. “I think they would want to give the manager, on the back of last season, and any manager for that point, as much support, and they would want to be extremely strong for Arne Slot during this tough time, try and give him the opportunity to get the team out of it and fix the issues that they have got,” he said.
On the relationship between Slot and the sporting leadership Gerrard added: “I think also, knowing [sporting director] Richard Hughes a little bit and [CEO of football] Michael Edwards a bit more, they would want to be strong and rally around the manager,” and: “They are not really a club that makes a lot of changes, so I think the pressure’s more external than internal.” The Athletic summed the position: “The pressure is real but he’s not on the brink.”
Key statistics from the period include non-penalty expected goals for 34.8 (5th), non-penalty expected goals against 24.2 (3rd), set-piece goals for 5 (joint 17th) and set-piece goals against 14 (19th).
