Arne Slot has mentioned Liverpool have “a hell of a problem” to forestall accidents affecting their ambitions for the remainder of the season after failing to signal Lutsharel Geertruida on deadline day.
Though Liverpool strengthened for subsequent season with the £60m signing of Jérémy Jacquet, who will arrive from Rennes in the summertime, their present issues in defence weren’t lined. The Premier League champions did transfer for the Netherlands worldwide Geertruida, who’s on mortgage at Sunderland from Leipzig and wished the switch, however the deal was referred to as off as a result of Sunderland had been unable to safe a alternative.
Slot is with out two defenders for the rest of the season in Conor Bradley and Giovanni Leoni, and Jeremie Frimpong is sidelined with a hip damage. Joe Gomez has missed the previous two video games with a hip drawback however may return to the bench in opposition to Manchester Metropolis on Sunday.
The Liverpool head coach believes his squad will enhance however would battle to resist additional damage setbacks. “I’m very proud of the squad, let that be clear,” Slot mentioned. “But it surely’s apparent we’ve three long-term accidents. That’s why we tried to strengthen within the winter break and the participant you talked about, ultimately, wasn’t accessible.
“I feel there’s extra to come back from this group of gamers for apparent causes. Some causes I in all probability blame myself for a bit, however some issues I can not do something about: accidents, a participant not able to play three video games per week. But it surely’s clear if we’ve an damage disaster, much more than we have already got, then that makes issues much more troublesome. Now we have 16 gamers accessible and Trey [Nyoni] and Rio [Ngumoha] are two of them.
“This squad is ready to do higher and greater than we’ve achieved till now, in my view, however then all of them want to remain accessible. That’s going to be a hell of a problem as a result of we’ve three video games in seven days arising.”
Liverpool beat Chelsea to the signing of Jacquet, who was additionally coveted by Bayern Munich, and Slot insisted he agreed with the membership’s longer-term switch technique. “I at all times need one of the best for the membership even when within the brief time period it’s not superb for me,” he mentioned. “I’m not saying it’s [not ideal] but when it means this, I might at all times go for the signing that’s greatest for the membership. I knew which membership I went into. This membership has a mannequin of signing gifted gamers youthful. I’ve at all times preferred to work in that manner.”
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