Liverpool manager Arne Slot has downplayed concerns about the team’s defensive resources ahead of the 2025\/26 season while hinting at a possible new signing in defence. Despite Liverpool’s defensive frailties being apparent in a recent 4-2 pre-season friendly loss to AC Milan, Slot expressed confidence in his defensive options. The Dutch coach highlighted the versatility of midfielder Ryan Gravenberch, who started alongside Virgil van Dijk, noting, \u201cRyan showed he can play that position\u2014he did it well, although we favour him as a No. 6. Wataru Endo can play there [centre back].\u201d <\/p>\n
The current squad behind the established duo of Van Dijk and Ibrahima Konat\u00e9 is thin. Joe Gomez, sidelined with a minor Achilles injury during the friendly, remains a key option but has faced ongoing fitness challenges. The 24-year-old Rhys Williams is the other centre back available after the sale of Jarell Quansah to Bayer Leverkusen. Slot acknowledged the gap left by Quansah\u2019s departure, stating, \u201cSo we have enough options but it is true that Jarell Quansah left and we haven\u2019t replaced him yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
This situation leaves Liverpool\u2019s top-flight title defence dependent on maintaining defensive solidity, with potential transfer activity hinted by the manager to reinforce this critical area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arne Slot reassures on Liverpool’s defensive options but hints at a new signing before season starts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":759,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[299,59],"class_list":["post-760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","tag-arne-slot","tag-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=760"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":761,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760\/revisions\/761"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}