Liverpool boss Arne Slot admits his team has ‘quite some issues’ after the international break and ahead of a huge clash with Chelsea at Anfield on Sunday.
The Reds have had a brilliant start to the season under their new manager, sitting top of the Premier League table with six wins from seven games.
However, the Dutchman has some selection headaches against an in-form Blues side, with Enzo Maresca’s team not losing since the opening game of the league season.
Goalkeeper Alisson Becker is out until next month with a hamstring problem, with Caoimhín Kelleher set to replace him this weekend, but Slot suggested he had a string of other problems after the international fixtures.
‘Alisson is for sure not with us in the upcoming weeks, that’s clear, that’s a blow for him and for us because I think he did relaly well this season and for this club for so many years,’ Slot told a press conference on Friday morning.
‘Now the good ting is that Caoimhín did really well for us in previous years and this season also so we have a good replacement but You always want all your players available.
‘Now we’ve got quite some issues with players coming back from their national teams. And we can only judge that perfectly today because today’s the first time they’re all in and the first time they are all training together again, so let’s see after this session where everybody is.
‘Macca [Alexis Mac Allister] missed one game, played the second one [for Argentina]. Kostas [Tsimikas] missed out against England [for Greece]. I can’t name them all but we’ve got a few issues going on and let’s wait and see where we are after today. [Wataru] Endo as well, he was sick.’
Liverpool continue to have the contract situation of three key players hanging over the club, with Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold’s deals all due to end next summer.
It would seem catastrophic for the club to lose all three of those men for free at the same time, but Slot could offer no update on their contract situations and if any of them are due to sign new deals.
‘They were with the national teams, Trent scored a fantastic free-kick, like you probably saw,’ he said. ‘Same question, same answer, there will always be talks about our players, which is a good thing, because it means that they do really well.
‘If they played badly then you probably wouldn’t have asked, it’s a good thing that everybody want their contract to be renewed because that tells me and I also see this that they do really well. But I cannot tell you anything about that.’
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