Liverpool head coach Arne Slot has revealed centre-back Joe Gomez is set to miss “a few weeks” after suffering an injury last time out – but also highlighted good news for the Premier League leaders on the fitness front with two other defenders set to return to full training.
The Reds sit top of the table and host out-of-form Manchester United on Sunday, with Slot facing something of a defensive problem with only five senior players available in the back line, two of which are left-backs.
Gomez had been partnering Virgil van Dijk in the middle of late, but a hamstring issue picked up against West Ham means he’ll miss at least a handful of fixtures this month.
That leaves Jarell Quansah as the likely candidate to step in, for what would be his first league start in the middle of the back line since the opening day of the campaign against Ipswich, where he was subbed off at half-time. Since then he has only begun one top-flight fixture and that came at right-back.
Even so, Slot’s numbers could be boosted soon, even if that might not be in terms of starting options for the United match, with both Ibrahima Konate and Conor Bradley set for team training sessions on Friday after spending long spells out injured.
“Joe is not in a good place in terms of his injury. He’s out for a few weeks that’s for sure,” Slot explained in his pre-match press conference.
“Ibou and Conor will train with us for the first time today. [I’m] curious and interested to see where they are exactly. They’ve worked hard to come back to the team but the next step is always: how do you handle team sessions. We trained yesterday and I assume everybody is fit, but we’re in a period where people get sick as well.”
Despite Bradley’s impending return and Real Madrid’s transfer interest in Trent Alexander-Arnold, Slot revealed the vice-captain would definitely be starting if fit.
On opponents Manchester United’s struggles, Slot suggested it would come together for Ruben Amorim even if it was just the squad reverting to the mean, but warned it could take time.
“They have much better players in my opinion than the league table shows,” he said. “It’s going to take a while for Ruben Amorim maybe but they are going to go up and they are much, much better than the league table says.”