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Arne Slot embraces Alexander Isak after taking the striker off in Liverpool’s defeat to Manchester United(Image: Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA\/Getty Images)<\/p>\nArne Slot has addressed why he has had to make so many changes to his Liverpool starting line-up this season – and also got something off his chestArne Slot embraces Alexander Isak after taking the striker off in Liverpool’s defeat to Manchester United(Image: Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Arne Slot insists he has had no choice this season than to keep tinkering with his title-winning team as he defended the rate of change at Liverpool. The Reds<\/a> have undergone a significant overhaul since lifting a record-equalling 20th championship last season with almost \u00a3450million worth of summer arrivals while a raft of established squad regulars have departed.<\/p>\n The situation has been exacerbated by a succession of injuries during the opening months of the campaign and a lack of proper pre-season for players such as \u00a3125m British record signing Alexander Isak,<\/a> midfielder Alexis Mac Allister<\/a> and right-back Conor Bradley.<\/a><\/p>\n Liverpool’s inconsistent team selection contributed to a recent run of six defeats in seven games that ramped up the pressure on Slot<\/a> before he opted to rely less on new signings in his starting line-up, resulting in successive home wins against Aston Villa in the Premier League and Real Madrid in the Champions League<\/a>.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Dominik Szoboszlai makes honest Liverpool admission ahead of Man City – ‘That’s what we’ve missed’<\/a>READ MORE: Arne Slot addresses Andy Robertson form and Liverpool contract question – ‘It’s been a while’<\/a><\/p>\n And ahead of Sunday’s trip to title contenders Manchester City, Slot – who welcomed Isak back to training on Friday after a fortnight out with a groin problem<\/a> – has explained his heavy rotation this campaign.<\/p>\n “I’m known as being a manager who prefers not to change but I couldn\u2019t do anything different to what I did,” said the Liverpool<\/a> head coach. “Then of course we brought new players in and they have to adapt.<\/p>\n \u201cRyan Gravenberch<\/a> missed the first two games of the season, (Alexis) Mac Allister was out the whole pre-season, Conor Bradley wasn\u2019t able to play, Jeremie Frimpong<\/a> wasn\u2019t able to play many games.<\/p>\n “Alexander Isak came in and had to do pre-season inside the season. You could say ‘why do you play him?’, but then he wouldn\u2019t be fit until the end of the season.<\/p>\n “We knew this before when we signed him that it was going to take three to six months until he\u2019s up to his usual level. But if I never play him, I can\u2019t bring him to that level.<\/p>\n \u201cThere have been obvious reasons why we\u2019ve had to change more than I would like. Mac Allister as an example, if you miss out on pre-season then you\u2019re not ready to play three games in seven days.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you do, you will get injuries, and I can show multiple examples to you \u2013 where Alex, by the way, is one \u2013 but also from other clubs, which I will not do because then journalists will go to the club and say \u2018Arne Slot said something about your players…\u2019!<\/p>\n \u201cBut it\u2019s so obvious for me, and I\u2019m a bit more, you can maybe feel it, a bit like \u2018Jesus, why don\u2019t you see these things? Why are you talking about me changing?\u2019 when it\u2019s so obvious why.<\/p>\n \u201cIbou (Konate) and Virgil (van Dijk) I haven\u2019t changed because they play in a position where it\u2019s easier to play so many games.”<\/p>\n Slot added: “It\u2019s not like in the first game of the season I decided not to play Ryan \u2013 he became a dad, that\u2019s why I played Curtis (Jones). Then in the first Premier League<\/a> game he was suspended as he made a dive for the first yellow (against Crystal Palace in the last game of last season when Gravenberch was later sent off).<\/p>\n \u201cYou know what I want to say now? I want to talk about the last game when I saw a dive (from Vinicius Jnr), which 100% should have been a second yellow, which I never hear as well about how many referee decisions have gone against us in the last six or seven weeks, but\u2026 now I’ve said that\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Isak is likely to only be considered for bench duty at the Etihad on Sunday, while left winger Cody Gakpo<\/a>, left-back Milos Kerkez<\/a> and midfielder Curtis Jones<\/a> are all pressing for a start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arne Slot has addressed why he has had to make so many changes to his Liverpool starting line-up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1121,763,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-556673","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-arne-slot","9":"tag-liverpool-fc","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115512619276925077","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}