Liverpool manager Arne Slot says the club are battling a number of injury problems ahead of Sunday’s visit of Chelsea.
The Reds sit top of the Premier League table after winning six of their opening seven games, with a surprise home defeat to Nottingham Forest the only blemish on the Dutchman’s record.
One of the key factors in Liverpool’s early success under Slot has been his stoic defensive performances. So far this season they have scored only two goals, four fewer than any other team this season Premier League.
However, their hopes of maintaining that good defensive record suffered a major blow ahead of the October international break. porter Alisson Becker injured his hamstring in the 1-0 win at Crystal Palace, which will likely keep him out until after the next set of internationals.
Slot is confident, however, that his deputy Caiomhin Kelleher will provide the necessary stability between the posts, pointing to his past performances when covering for the Brazilian.
“Alisson will certainly not be with us in the next few weeks, this is a blow for him and for us, he did very well with this club for so many years,” Slot told reporters. “Caoimhin (Kelleher) has done well for us in previous years and this year, so we have a good replacement.
“It’s unusual for goalkeepers. At Feyenoord I had the same thing with my goalkeeper, with muscle injuries. We are analyzing it and what are the reasons. If you have one, the chances of another go up, so we tried to go with account
“But it’s also a good opportunity to bring it up again, there were some things about me that I didn’t like about the 12.30 kick-off, but if you’re playing on a Wednesday night, it might be a disadvantage to play at 12.30 after the CL match, the chances of injury go up.
“We have to take that into account. You can’t change all 11 players, but in hindsight I could have chosen Caoimhin over Alisson. In Holland, I’m 99.9% sure the Champions League teams rest more to prepare. That’s not common here in England.”
Slot also revealed uncertainty over the fitness of three outfield players, including World Cup-winning midfielder Alexis Mac Allister, who has started the season in fine form.
“We’ve got a lot of problems and we can only judge it from today as it’s the first day they’re all in. Macca (Alexis Mac Allister) missed one game and played the second,” Slot commented. Kostas (Tsimikas) missed England… I can name them all and we have some problems so we will see. (Wataru) Endo was sick, we’ll see.”
Chelsea, meanwhile, have one close to the net health bill ahead of the trip to Anfield, with Enzo Maresca confirming in his own press conference that captain Reece James, who has not been seen so far this season, is back available after overcoming a hamstring injury.
