With a fully fit squad at his disposal, Arne Slot has some tough decisions to make for Liverpool’s Premier League opener against Ipswich Town.
Preparations for the new campaign have been disjointed when factoring in the impact of Euro 2024 and Copa America which resulted in as many as seven first-team stars – including Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo – reporting for training much later than others.
Meanwhile, Andy Robertson, Curtis Jones and Dominik Szoboszlai all experienced niggles during pre-season with the former missing the entire tour of the USA as a result of an issue he took into the European Championships with Scotland.
But ahead of Saturday lunchtime’s clash against the Premier League newboys, the good news for Liverpool that Slot has confirmed every first-team player is fit and available selection for the game that will be streamed live here on TNT.
“Yes, we have,” was his response when asked in the pre-match press conference on Friday morning if he has a full squad to choose from for the trip to Portman Road.
Tough decisions for Slot
Fantastic news, yes. However, this does leave Slot with a selection headache especially as Premier League permit the new Liverpool head coach to name a 20-man squad for any fixture in the top-flight of English football.
Taking the club’s official website into account, the Reds now have 27 senior players listed following Calvin Ramsay’s loan move to Wigan Athletic in addition to Thiago Alcantara, Joel Matip, Adrian and Fabio Carvalho all departing permanently over the summer.
So, assuming no further first-team-related transfers are completed ahead of kick-off, as many as seven senior players will miss out against Ipswich.
Now, neither captain Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold or Mohamed Salah are expected to miss out as Slot has already assured the trio – who have entered the final 12 months of their contracts – will be in the squad.
“I don’t think this is the place to talk about contracts,” he added when asked if there was an update on negotiations over new deals for any of three players mentioned. “But I can assure you that they are in the squad tomorrow.”
It’s now a waiting game to see which over 17 players are picked to join van Dijk, Alexander-Arnold and Salah in Liverpool’s matchday squad vs Ipswich, although given speculation surrounding their futures it wouldn’t be a surprise if the likes of Sepp van den Berg, Rhys Williams, Nathaniel Phillips and Ben Doak don’t travel.
