Arne Slot on his plans for Liverpool’s centre-back department after the ACL injury to Giovanni Leoni on Tuesday night
22:30, 26 Sep 2025Updated 22:40, 26 Sep 2025
Arne Slot saw Giovanni Leoni sustain a serious knee injury in Liverpool’s win over Southampton (Image: James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)
Arne Slot says Giovanni Leoni’s season-ending injury won’t force Liverpool to revisit their interest in Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi in January. The Reds missed out on a £35m deal for the England international on transfer deadline day.
The Eagles were unable to recruit a replacement and with Guehi’s contract up next summer, the Premier League champions are expected to move when he becomes a free agent.
Asked if the anterior cruciate ligament tear for Leoni, sustained in Tuesday night’s Carabao Cup win over Southampton changes the thinking internally, Slot said: “That all depends on whether we get more injuries, yes or no, and if there’s a chance in the market – all the answers I always give.
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“But I would not prefer to go to 24/25 players. Also, if it is ever a situation where I lead a team that has four or five injuries throughout the whole season, it might be a bit smarter to go to 24/25, but recent history showed that [we have a good record] until now.
“We don’t have five or six injuries at the same time throughout the whole season, if that would be the situation then we would end up with 15/16 players and that would normally be difficult.
“So it’s a choice I like to make but I think it is also a financial choice that we as a club have to make. If we want to keep these top players, we cannot have 24/25 of them.
“It’s also a choice we make. I know a lot is being said about our squad but if people would start to look at it in the way they should, you’d say we’ve got 20/21 players where some other teams we are in competition with are on 24/25/26.
“But that’s the choice we make because I believe that every player needs to have perspective of development or playing time.
“If I have to disappoint four or five players, I believe that is not the right energy that you want to have in the building.
“On the other hand, that means if you get one injury, you don’t have two replacements anymore, so you don’t have two players for every position anymore.
“That’s then the risk you take but that’s also why we try to bring in versatile players like Florian Wirtz who can play left, can play as a 10, can play as an eight; Dominik Szoboszlai can play every position, I think.
“That is the way we do it and it is also why we can maybe spend a bit more on one player instead of bringing three in, and that is maybe the difference between the clubs.”
The Liverpool boss added: “I would like to say so but I think it takes a longer term to prove this [good injury record]. We, as with any other team in the league by the way, try to have a certain way of working where you prevent as many injuries as you can, but normally it is very difficult to prevent an ACL.
“But muscle injuries are maybe a bit better, there’s a better chance of preventing a muscle injury, unless you only have 14 players available and you have to overload them.
“If you look at Alexander Isak now, we are trying to make the best possible programme and also to stick to that programme.
“I might be tempted once in a while, maybe even tomorrow, to keep him on the pitch for 90 [minutes], but then I always try to look at the long term and not at the short term with these issues.”