{"id":114361,"date":"2025-10-31T15:48:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T15:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/114361\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T15:48:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T15:48:11","slug":"slot-clarifies-city-chelsea-claim-happy-with-liverpool-squad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/114361\/","title":{"rendered":"Slot Clarifies City, Chelsea Claim: ‘Happy’ With Liverpool Squad"},"content":{"rendered":"

After suggesting concern over the depth of his Liverpool squad when comparing them to Man City<\/a> and Chelsea<\/a> in midweek, Arne Slot<\/a> insists he is \u201ccompletely happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking after the 3-0 defeat to Crystal Palace<\/a> in the Carabao Cup<\/a> \u2013 for which he made 10 changes and filled his bench with academy players \u2013 Slot claimed Liverpool were not in the same position as Man City<\/a> or Chelsea<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He said that Man City<\/a>, despite making 10 changes for their 3-1 win at Swansea, \u201cfelt like they played with their 11 starters,\u201d while for their 2-1 win over the Reds earlier this month Chelsea<\/a> \u201cwere missing eight but could still bring Estevao in.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was understandably seen as a complaint over the depth of his Liverpool squad, but asked to clarify his stance on Friday, Slot insisted: \u201cWe miss nothing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy that you ask this question: I\u2019m completely happy with the team, with all the quality that we have.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m also completely convinced with the strategy and the policy that we have.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the \u2018issue\u2019, if you could talk about an issue, is that not all of them have had a proper pre-season or have been injured during the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo then when three or four are injured, you go back to 16 players. I am a firm believer in the fact that 20, 21 players are enough, but you have to keep them fit \u2013 as we did last season.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LIVERPOOL,<\/p>\n

Alisson<\/a>, Giovanni Leoni<\/a>, Jeremie Frimpong<\/a>, Ryan Gravenberch<\/a>, Curtis Jones<\/a>, Stefan Bajcetic<\/a>, Alexander Isak<\/a> and Jayden Danns<\/a> were all ruled out Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

Slot then made the decision to rest Giorgi Mamardashvili<\/a>, Virgil van Dijk<\/a>, Ibrahima Konate<\/a>, Conor Bradley<\/a>, Dominik Szoboszlai<\/a>, Florian Wirtz<\/a>, Mohamed Salah<\/a>, Cody Gakpo<\/a> and Hugo Ekitike<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That, he continued, came with fitness in mind, knowing that Liverpool were in a far-from-ideal position after a summer of significant change and tragic loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are struggling a bit more to keep them fit for, in my opinion, obvious reasons,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\"LIVERPOOL,<\/p>\n

\u201cAlex is a great example of this, came to us I think September 1. A few others have missed out on pre-season; a few others have had their injuries in pre-season.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it has been more difficult than last season to keep them all available. And then if a few of them are not available, then it comes down a lot towards the same players.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe last season we were more lucky and now we are a bit more unlucky.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgain, no excuses for our results, before people say this again, but we\u2019ve had to play a lot of away games with only two days\u2019 rest in between.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that would have been a difficult schedule for every player last season, and I mean a player who has been fit throughout pre-season and throughout the whole season, but that has not been our situation.<\/p>\n

\"LIVERPOOL,<\/p>\n

\u201cThen I think you have to manage it, because the upcoming week is again three [games] in seven or eight days.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that\u2019s nothing to do with the squad depth, it has to do with how we\u2019ve run through the season in terms of injuries and availability, and players available to play every single time two games in three days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slot can welcome Gravenberch back from his ankle injury for Saturday\u2019s visit of Aston Villa<\/a>, while he will be hoping for positive news on Jones and Isak next week, when his side face Real Madrid<\/a> and Man City<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Per The Athletic<\/a>, while Liverpool have used more players than any other Premier League<\/a> team so far in all competitions this season (32), Slot\u2019s comments on the availability of his regular starters are accurate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After suggesting concern over the depth of his Liverpool squad when comparing them to Man City and Chelsea…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[16118,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-114361","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-arne-slot","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}