Arne Slot’s biggest selection decisions could come at full-back this weekend when Liverpool takes on Tottenham Hotspur in a potentially title-deciding clash.
The Reds head coach tried to play down the significance of Sunday’s game against Spurs, insisting he was treating it like every other match and was focusing on simply taking three points. Liverpool fans will settle for one, however, which would see it crowned Premier League champions.
Slot also didn’t give any new injury updates in Friday’s press conference, coming just two days after the whole squad trained. Joe Gomez is the only player ruled out and it means Slot has an almost full squad to choose from.
Despite the league being all but wrapped up for several weeks, the Liverpool boss has stuck mainly with the team that helped establish such a huge lead in the early weeks of the season. “There’s a lot of research done about the longer the team plays together, the better they start to play, or the more often they play together, the better they play as well,” Slot said ahead of the Spurs game. “That’s why I am not a big fan of rotating the team every game by five, six, seven positions.
The only changes in recent weeks have come in the wide defensive areas, with Trent Alexander-Arnold injured and Andy Robertson dropping out of the side. The latter has been replaced by Kostas Tsimikas and didn’t even come off the bench in last week’s win over Leicester City. But whether Slot is tempted to restore the experienced defender for such a high-profile encounter is a different matter.
As for Alexander-Arnold, he grabbed the winning goal after coming off the bench at the King Power Stadium and could return to the starting XI, but Conor Bradley looks a more likely option at right-back. Slot even discussed whether the Northern Ireland international is ready to play 90 minutes yet after his own injury issues, while Jamie Carragher has called for Bradley to be given a run in the side over the coming weeks to see if he is ready to step up as the team’s first choice in that position.
At center-back, Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk will almost certainly play ahead of Alisson in between the sticks.
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In midfield, Dominik Szoboszlai was vastly improved last week as he returned to the side ahead of Curtis Jones. Slot will be faced with the same dilemma on Sunday, but should stick with the Hungarian. Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister have been among Liverpool’s most regular starters this season and will begin the match at the base of midfield, barring any last-minute injury.
But there could be a change up front with Cody Gakpo again looking ineffective at Leicester. He was replaced by Diogo Jota – and a repeat of that from the off on Sunday seems a real possibility.
Luis Diaz has been the team’s best player since the March international break, while Mohamed Salah’s record of starting every league game this season is unlikely to end against Spurs. He’s still chasing down personal goals and assists records in the final weeks of the campaign.
Whether Slot includes Nunez in the squad will be intriguing following his alleged social media outburst on Saturday. Slot also denied reports that he has not been selecting the no.9 in the team as Liverpool will owe Benfica compensation if Nunez starts another game this season, as was reported in Portugal earlier this week.
Liverpool predicted XI vs. Tottenham: Alisson; Bradley, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson; Gravenberch, Mac Allister, Szoboszlai; Salah, Jota, Diaz.
