Manager says injuries and lack of fitness have affected his team
Liverpool manager Arne Slot has rejected suggestions that his team’s poor run of form is due to a lack of squad depth.
The Reds have lost six of their last seven matches in all competitions, including four straight Premier League defeats and a 3-0 Carabao Cup exit to Crystal Palace on Wednesday. It has piled pressure on Slot only a few months after guiding the club to the title in his debut season.
“We miss nothing,” the Dutchman said. “I’m happy with the quality of the team. But I’m also convinced by the strategy and policy we have.
“The issue is that not all of them have had a proper pre-season. When three or four are injured, you go down to having 16 players.”
The Liverpool manager believes in working with a compact group but the negative side to that is the team becomes more vulnerable to injuries.
“I am a firm believer that 21 or 22 players are enough,” said Slot. “But you have to keep them fit as we did last season. This year it’s been more difficult to keep them available. When players are not fit, the workload falls on the same group, and that’s taken its toll.”
Slot added that the congested fixture list this season has not helped. The increasingly tight schedule has become a contentious issue in the game recently.
“We had to play a lot of away games with only two days in between,” Slot said. “That would have been difficult even last season. It has nothing to do with squad depth, it’s about how we’ve gone through the season in terms of injuries and availability.”
Liverpool’s list of absentees includes striker Alexander Isak, who is out with a groin issue, and midfielder Curtis Jones. However, there is some encouragement with Ryan Gravenberch close to a return after resuming training this week.
“Ryan trained with us yesterday,” Slot confirmed. “The other two didn’t. We’ll decide later whether he can start, but Isak and Jones are 99.9% sure not in the squad.”
Slot was asked about his future but the Liverpool manager said it was not the right time or place to discuss that. The 46-year-old signed a three-year deal when he joined last year, meaning his current contract runs out after next season.
“This is the last question that I was expecting,” Slot said. “My focus is completely on getting Liverpool back to winning ways. Contract talks, if they are even there, we never speak about this here. Let us first start to win again.”
