Slot ‘completely happy’ with Liverpool squad despite poor form

Liverpool manager, Arne Slot, says he is “completely happy” with his Liverpool squad despite recent suggestions that he was concerned about the depth available to him.

The Reds bowed out of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday, beaten 3-0 at home by Crystal Palace after Slot elected to field a largely youthful and inexperienced team.

Slot gave starts to three teenagers and had a further five among his substitutes as he made 10 changes to the team that lost 3-2 at Brentford on Saturday – their fourth league defeat in a row.

After the Palace game, Slot said maybe his selection “gives a little bit of insight” into the squad depth he is working with.

The Dutchman, who led Liverpool to last season’s Premier League title in his first campaign, also highlighted that Manchester City and Chelsea were able to rotate without hugely weakening their starting line-ups as both clubs advanced to the quarter-finals.

But, in the build-up to Saturday’s Premier League home game against Aston Villa (20:00 GMT), Slot has backtracked and insists he is “happy” with his options.

“We miss nothing,” Slot said.

“I am completely happy with the team and with all the quality that we have.”

After winning their opening seven games of the season across all competitions, Liverpool have lost six of the past seven.

They have slipped to seventh in the Premier League table and trail leaders Arsenal by seven points, leading to some fans questioning whether Slot is the right man to take Liverpool forward.

All of this comes after a record-breaking summer of investment at Anfield when the club embarked on the biggest summer spending spree in European football history – parting with £415m to recruit a stellar collection of talent.

The previous record was held by Chelsea who spent £400m in the summer of 2023 and Liverpool were prepared to hand over a further £35m to sign Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi until the deal collapsed as the transfer window closed.

Striker Alexander Isak was the last player through the door on 1 September for a British-record £125m.

Isak, 26, downed tools at Newcastle and trained alone as he looked to force through to move to Merseyside, meaning he missed an entire pre-season.

Liverpool have also been without several key players – including Alisson, Jeremie Frimpong and Ryan Gravenberch – because of injury during the opening months of the campaign.

“I am completely convinced by the strategy and the policy that we have but that makes the issue – if you call it an issue – is not all of them have had a proper pre-season or have been injured,” Slot added.

“When three or four are injured you go back to 16 players. I am a firm believer that 20 or 21 players is enough but you have to keep them fit as we did last season.

“Alex [Isak] is a great example of this. A few others have missed out on pre-season or had injuries during pre-season.

“It has been more difficult than last season to keep them all available and if a few of them are not available, it comes down a lot to the same players. Maybe last season we were more lucky and now we are more unlucky.”

(BBC Sport)

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