{"id":286815,"date":"2025-11-27T21:48:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T21:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/286815\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T21:48:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T21:48:11","slug":"joe-gomez-selection-decision-explained-as-arne-slot-reveals-ibrahima-konate-concern-for-liverpool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/286815\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Gomez selection decision explained as Arne Slot reveals Ibrahima Konate concern for Liverpool"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joe Gomez has failed to feature for Liverpool in their last two games despite being among the substitutes and Arne Slot being without a recognised right-back\"JoeJoe Gomez has been used sparingly by Arne Slot(Image: Liverpool FC via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Arne Slot has explained why Joe Gomez has continued to remain on the bench despite Liverpool’s ongoing issues at right-back. And the Reds boss is hopeful Florian Wirtz could be in contention for Sunday’s crucial Premier League<\/a> trip to West Ham United.<\/p>\n

Liverpool<\/a> are suffering a selection crisis on the right side of defence with both Conor Bradley<\/a> and Jeremie Frimpong<\/a> sidelined for a significant period due to hamstring injuries.<\/p>\n

Despite Gomez<\/a> being in the matchday squad, he was an unused substitute in the last two matches with Dominik Szoboszlai starting at right-back for last weekend’s 3-0 defeat at home to Nottingham Forest and Curtis Jones filling the breach in Wednesday’s 4-1 Champions League<\/a> loss against PSV Eindhoven at Anfield<\/a>.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Arne Slot responds to Liverpool future speculation and reveals talks with club chiefs<\/a>READ MORE: Pep Guardiola has already shown Arne Slot what has to happen next to save Liverpool job<\/a><\/p>\n

And while insistent Gomez could start at the London Stadium on Sunday, Slot<\/a> has detailed why concerns over Ibrahima Konate’s fitness prompted him not to use the England international in midweek.<\/p>\n

“He could have been involved yesterday in terms of minutes but when we are 2-1 down or 3-1 I tend to make offensive substitutions,” said Slot, speaking to the media on Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

“For him to start is also definitely a possibility but Konate didn\u2019t train two days before the game, he was a bit of a liability. If you don’t have that many defenders to start with, (starting) two players who maybe might not be able to play the whole 90 that is kind of a risk as well.<\/p>\n

“I decided to keep him there if Ibou was injured and not to have to make two substitutions as we’d have probably ended up with only one or two defenders.”<\/p>\n

Alisson Becker missed the PSV game through illness but is expected to be back for West Ham, while Wirtz, who sat out the last two games with a muscle problem, and Hugo Ekitike, forced off on Wednesday with a back spasm, haven’t been ruled out.<\/p>\n

“Ali trained again with the team today so we hope and expect him to be available at the weekend,” said Slot.<\/p>\n

“Florian will have his final day of rehab tomorrow so if that all goes well he could train with the team on Saturday.<\/p>\n

“Hugo, today was recovery but they don\u2019t expect it will be a big issue, but games come fast so let\u2019s see for the weekend. It shouldn’t have to be a big issue.”<\/p>\n

As well as Gomez, the likes of Wataru Endo, Federico Chiesa, Andy Robertson and teenager Rio Ngumoha are all pushing for minutes.<\/p>\n

And when asked about changing his line-up, Slot added: “You consider everything. Until now I have decided differently but they train with us every single day and they can prove themselves in those moments.<\/p>\n

“It is always a balance. If you don\u2019t change people think you should change more and there was a period this season where we lost and I made a few changes and people complained I changed too much and there was never any time the same team.<\/p>\n

“Of course, I consider (changes) but I can’t tell you what the end product of that consideration is for Sunday.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Gomez has failed to feature for Liverpool in their last two games despite being among the substitutes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[1969,218,134,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-286815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-arne-slot","tag-football","tag-liverpool-fc","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}