Arne Slot looks tense on the touchline | Image Credits: IMAGO/ Anadolu Agency
League leaders Liverpool will travel to Stamford Bridge for Saturday’s late kick off fixture in the Premier League as Arne Slot’s men would be looking to get back to winning ways after losing two matches in the last seven days.
On the other hand, Chelsea bounced back to winning ways in mid-week as the Blues defeated Benfica 1-0 on Jose Mourinho’s return to West London. Joao Pedro was sent off on Saturday, marking an indisciplined start for the London-based club which has seen many players getting sent off in the last few matches.
Heading into Saturday’s fixture, Liverpool manager Arne Slot gave updates on goalkeeper Allison and forwards Hugo Ekitike and Federico Chiesa.
Slot said, “Allison is not part of the squad tomorrow and he's not going to travel to Brazil as well for the national team, so he will be out for Saturday. Hugo is going to train today again and let's see where he is. And the same can be said for Federico. So we have to wait and see after the session where they exactly are.”
Continuing on similar lines, Slot exclaimed that Allison might not be available after the international break as well. He continued, “I would be surprised if he would be there in the first game after the international break. But from there on, sometimes things can go a bit faster or a bit slower. So it's always difficult to say the amount of days and weeks, but, for the upcoming games he will not be part of us or the Brazil team.”
With Allison ruled out of the high-profile fixture against reigning FIFA Club World Cup winners Chelsea, Giorgi Mamardashvili would make his full Premier League debut after replacing the Brazilian goalkeeper in the 1-0 loss against Galatasaray in the UEFA Champions League.
Slot exclaimed, “We knew that we were bringing in a very good goalkeeper but when he plays his first game, that's always the best way of seeing that he's adjusted well or not. And I think we've seen in that game that he's adjusted really well to our club, which is not a surprise because he's a quality goalkeeper. And now he can do what Caoimhin (Kelleher) had to do so many times in the past replacing Allison, hopefully in a way like Caoimhin did so many times before.”
Alexander Isak and Mohamad Salah came off the bench against Galatasaray | Image Credits: IMAGO/ Propaganda Photo
When asked about how Alexander Isak has blended in the squad and how match fit he is to feature in three consecutive fixtures, Slot exclaimed, “Yeah, I said to him (Isak) when he started, the difficult thing will be you will have your appearances, but if you add the minutes together, he probably only had two or three 90-minute games. That is the what we inherited from the situation of him not being with the team in Newcastle. We knew this before, so it's not an excuse.”
The Reds manager further emphasised on the importance of gelling with the teammates and adjusting to the gameplay.
The Dutchman continued, “He already scored a goal but the main thing is he needs to adjust to his teammates, and the teammates need to adjust to him. And the more you play together, the better things will work. There was a a great moment, not great because it didn't end up the way I wanted, but he had a great counter movement in the Palace game. In the end, the midfielder didn't see that and he already played the ball to the right, if he would have seen it, he would have been one-on-one to the goalkeeper.”
Slot also shed light on Mohamad Salah’s diminishing returns in front of the goal and how Liverpool is facing low blocks from almost every team since the start of the second half of last Premier League season.
The 47-year old said, “In the second part of last season, Mo (Salah) scored 12 goals, five from a penalty, one from a set piece, and six open play goals. So he is part of a team that faces different opposition compared to the first half of last season.”
Talking about the matches against United, he said, “If you compare how we've won the away game against Man United where they tried to play out from the back and we took the ball three times off them and you compare that the way United played at Anfield where Onana only went long, then that is one of the answers why it's more difficult for us to score from open play goals.”
Slot concluded, “What I'm trying to say is that open play, we don't score as many goals anymore as we did the first part of last season. This is something we work on very hard and the more we will play together uh in the new setup, the better that will go.”
