Arne Slot has provided a Liverpool fitness update ahead of the massive Premier League match at Manchester City
Arne Slot has revealed that Cody Gakpo remains a doubt to face Manchester City on Sunday. And the Liverpool boss has also confirmed that Joe Gomez has undergone surgery on a hamstring injury.
Gakpo has missed Liverpool’s last two matches after suffering a knock in last week’s 2-2 draw with Everton while Gomez has suffered a reoccurrence of a previous injury when he was forced off early on when making his comeback against Plymouth Argyle in the FA Cup.
Slot has not given up hope of Gakpo making his return against City, but admitted the forward is yet to return to team training.
And the Reds boss also confirmed that Gomez will now be ruled out until the final weeks of the season.
“Let’s see, let’s see. I hope (he is available),” Slot said of Gakpo. “I’m not 100% sure because he hasn’t trained with the team yet.
Maybe he does a bit today, I don’t know exactly. It will be a close call.
“Joe Gomez had surgery for his hamstring injury so he’s out for a long time. He will be back maybe just before the end of the season.”
Slot also admitted that he expects Conor Bradley to miss at least Liverpool’s clashes with Man City and Newcastle United after being forced off against Aston Villa.
No, Conor still has to come in,” the head coach said when conceding there was no new update on the full-back. “We don’t know yet.
“I would be completely surprised if he was involved in the Sunday game or the Wednesday game against Newcastle. You can assume that’s not going to happen.”
Slot also explained his decision to substitute Diogo Jota and Trent Alexander-Arnold against the Villans as Liverpool continue to manage the pair carefully after injury, before sharing his belief that he does not think Ryan Gravenberch is suffering from burnout
These two players who are not injured, but they come back from an injury with (Diogo) Jota and Trent (Alexander-Arnold),” he said. “So that’s also the reason why they don’t play 90 minutes five times in a row in 15 days.
“That would be a big risk. We could see this yesterday with Conor Bradley.”
Meanwhile of Gravenberch, Slot said: “There are only a few players in the world who can be a nine out of 10 every single three days.
If you look at his age, he might, might, might eventually belong to that group of players – those two, three or four who can do this. But he’s not there yet which is completely normal.
“And it depends also on the playing style of the opponent. If you play Everton or Wolves, that’s a completely different game than when you play Villa.
“I liked him much more against Villa than I did against Everton for example. It’s not always as simple as the form of a player or how many games did he play
“But nine out of 10 times, that is the most easy reason to give instead of diving into it, looking at playing style and certain other things.”
