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Arne Slot has said Liverpool have “a hell of a challenge” to prevent injuries affecting their ambitions for the rest of the season after failing to sign Lutsharel Geertruida on deadline day.
Although Liverpool strengthened for next season with the £60m signing of Jérémy Jacquet, who will arrive from Rennes in the summer, their current problems in defence were not covered. The Premier League champions did move for the Netherlands international Geertruida, who is on loan at Sunderland from Leipzig and wanted the transfer, but the deal was called off because Sunderland were unable to secure a replacement.
Slot is without two defenders for the remainder of the season in Conor Bradley and Giovanni Leoni, and Jeremie Frimpong is sidelined with a hip injury. Joe Gomez has missed the past two games with a hip problem but could return to the bench against Manchester City on Sunday.
The Liverpool head coach believes his squad will improve but would struggle to withstand further injury setbacks. “I’m very happy with the squad, let that be clear,” Slot said. “But it’s obvious we have three long-term injuries. That’s why we tried to strengthen in the winter break and the player you mentioned, in the end, wasn’t available.
“I think there’s more to come from this group of players for obvious reasons. Some reasons I probably blame myself for a bit, but some things I cannot do anything about: injuries, a player not ready to play three games a week. But it’s clear if we have an injury crisis, even more than we already have, then that makes things even more difficult. We have 16 players available and Trey [Nyoni] and Rio [Ngumoha] are two of them.
“This squad is able to do better and more than we’ve done until now, in my opinion, but then they all need to stay available. That’s going to be a hell of a challenge because we have three games in seven days coming up.”
Liverpool beat Chelsea to the signing of Jacquet, who was also coveted by Bayern Munich, and Slot insisted he agreed with the club’s longer-term transfer strategy. “I always want the best for the club even if in the short term it is not ideal for me,” he said. “I am not saying it is [not ideal] but if it means this, I would always go for the signing that is best for the club. I knew which club I went into. This club has a model of signing talented players younger. I have always liked to work in that way.”
