Arne Slot has delivered a worrying update on Liverpool’s injury situation and addressed whether he plans to change formation ahead of the clash with West Ham United.
With the trip to West Ham approaching, Slot’s role as Liverpool head coach is under growing scrutiny.
The Dutchman has ruled out switching to a different setup for Sunday’s match, explaining that the team simply does not have enough healthy defenders to make such a change.
Liverpool head into the weekend in poor form, losing nine of their last 12 games in all competitions. The Premier League champions now sit 11 points behind leaders Arsenal, having conceded 10 goals and scored just once in their previous three outings.
This slump has intensified calls from supporters for Slot to rethink his tactics or make bolder selection decisions.
Some fans have suggested that a wing-back system could provide stability, but Slot insisted this isn’t an option. Both of the club’s senior right-backs, Conor Bradley and Jeremie Frimpong, are injured and unavailable for the West Ham fixture.
The injury list continues to grow: Giovanni Leoni is out for the season with a torn ACL, and Joe Gomez recently required a knee injection. Ibrahima Konaté also missed training before the 4–1 loss to PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League.
What Slot said
“Are you asking whether I should make major changes?” Slot replied, according to the Guardian. “I don’t know what you have in mind, but if you’re thinking about a five-man defence, that won’t work. I don’t even have five defenders available.
“The system we’re using is the best for this squad. Most of these players have spent their entire careers playing this way, and with the limited time we have between matches, it’s almost impossible to completely switch our football philosophy.
“We’ve used many different lineups — not because we wanted to, but because players haven’t always been available. We’ve had to depend on everyone.”
‘We have the quality’
Slot noted that Liverpool’s current slump is not unprecedented. Even Manchester City endured a similar stretch last season, winning just one of 13 matches before eventually finishing third and recovering their form this year. He believes Liverpool’s squad has the ability to mount a similar turnaround.
“I’ve mentioned several reasons for this run, and I could list five or six more, but none of them make the results any easier to accept,” Slot said. “Pep [Guardiola] would probably say the same.
“We had injuries last season as well. It’s not a new problem. It’s not as though everything went smoothly last year and suddenly we’re struggling because of injuries now.
“But City’s example is relevant — they have quality, and so do we.
“The only way out of this is for us as a team, and for me as a manager, to get the maximum out of the players again and return to winning matches.
“If we didn’t have quality, we’d be in real trouble. But we do — and now we must bring that quality back to the surface.”
