Arne Slot is glad that he can finally call upon the services of all six of his senior Liverpool forwards, but has pointed out that they aren’t all ready to play 90 minutes. Diogo Jota scored on his return from a two-month injury lay-off in last weekend’s draw with Fulham.
Meanwhile, Federico Chiesa made his first appearance since September off the bench in the Reds’ League Cup win over Southampton in midweek, and was unfortunate not to open his own account for the club as he had two efforts cleared off the line.
The pair’s return to action is timely as Liverpool head into a busy festive period, and they look to complement Mohamed Salah, Cody Gakpo, Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez in attack.
And ahead of his side’s trip to Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, Slot opened up on how he will make best use of his full attacking quota.
“I wouldn’t say it’s part of the thinking. It depends,” the Dutchman said when asked if he could now change his entire front three mid-game. “There are so many reasons why you take someone off.
“If you take someone off, sometimes it has to do with the next game that’s coming up. Sometimes you feel this player doesn’t play good.
“Sometimes he does play good but you feel like maybe someone else, different characteristics can make it difficult for the centre-back.
“It’s good for us to have six attackers back but not all six of them are ready to play 90 minutes yet.”
Such depth will inevitably prove beneficial to Liverpool in the long-run as they look to maintain the incredible form shown under Slot during his first half-season in charge at Anfield.
The Reds are currently top of both the Premier League and Champions League tables while also through to the League Cup semi-finals, with Slot overseeing 20 victories from his first 24 games in charge.
Liverpool have found themselves in such a situation before when they have been competing for multiple honours, only to perhaps run out of steam near the end of the campaign.
But Slot is confident that his squad has what it takes to last the distance this season.
“Yeah, we also have experience of this, my performance staff that worked with me [at Feyenoord] and the ones who are already here have this experience,” he said about the prospect of navigating a 60-game campaign.
“At my former club we have shown that players are capable of playing 50-60 games – although at a different level because the Eredivisie is a different level to the Premier League.
“That is why it is so important for us to have the input of the ones [performance staff] who already have worked for this club. This combination of knowledge should hopefully lead to keeping the players as fit as they can and able to play so many minutes.
“I saw a list of players who have played the most minutes this season and Virgil van Dijk was fourth so hopefully he can keep doing this and the combination of the ones I brought in [performance staff] and the ones that are still here hopefully is going to help us a lot.”
Liverpool could have dropped to second in the Premier League table by the time they kick off against Tottenham, courtesy of second-placed Chelsea travelling to Everton in the earlier Sunday kick-off.
And Slot has admitted that the Reds need to be able to win at Spurs if they want to win the Premier League, while pointing out what he needs to see from his side at the capital if they are to have a chance of winning.
“Yeah, you need to do a lot of things right,” he said. “Winning against Forest or Fulham at home, for example.
And Slot has admitted that the Reds need to be able to win at Spurs if they want to win the Premier League, while pointing out what he needs to see from his side at the capital if they are to have a chance of winning.
“Yeah, you need to do a lot of things right,” he said. “Winning against Forest or Fulham at home, for example.
Slot continued: “I think I do know they have applied their style and they’ve had some very good results with that style. They want to bring the ball out from the back. That’s also what we like to do.
“We have to be really, really intense if we want to have any chance of getting a good result. Now they do and they are first 15 to 20 minutes, they’re crazy when it comes to intensity.
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