Arne Slot explains why he’s risking players as injuries mount

Arne Slot has admitted he’s been left with little choice but to take risks with certain players as we prepare for three huge fixtures in eight days.

Speaking ahead of Saturday night’s Premier League meeting with Aston Villa, Arne Slot explained how the combination of injuries and fixture congestion has forced him to be pragmatic rather than idealistic.

“Just handling the situation as it is,” the Dutchman said in his pre-match press conference.

“Let me use Alex [Isak] as an example – he had to do his pre-season inside the season and people can then argue, ‘Why do you play him?’ But if I don’t play him, I don’t have him available and we need to have him available, because otherwise I have to play Hugo [Ekitike] every single game.”

Slot defends injury management amid intense schedule

Slot highlighted that the volume of matches in England makes it impossible to gradually build players’ fitness the way he’d prefer.

“I was just with Owen Hargreaves when he made the comparison between the two of them and he showed that one played 34 games last season, the other one 34 – and we play 60 over here,” he continued.

“That’s why I need to get Alex as soon as I can into playing as many games as he can.”

The 47-year-old admitted that several others, including Jeremie Frimpong and Conor Bradley, have also been affected by repeated injuries.

That has occasionally forced him to use Dominik Szoboszlai as cover at right-back and a heavily rotated defence during the recent Carabao Cup defeat to Crystal Palace – our sixth loss in seven games.

Liverpool still confident despite injuries before defining week

Our boss was quick to stress that he isn’t using the situation as an excuse.

“Every team has this,” he said. “But it’s just the situation as it is.

“We have still more than enough good players available to play the game on Saturday, to play the game on Tuesday and to play the game on Sunday.”

The comments arrived with his update that Ryan Gravenberch trained with the squad and could return against Villa, a significant lift for a side that will be missing Curtis Jones and Alexander Isak through muscle issues.

As John Aldridge wrote last week, the trio of Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak are the future of the club and we need to see them playing together regularly.

For now, though, Slot’s message is simple: he’ll protect his players where he can, but Liverpool’s fight across three competitions means some risks are unavoidable – especially this week.

You can watch Slot’s full pre-Aston Villa press conference via Empire of the Kop on YouTube:

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