Liverpool face Sunderland with Arne Slot sending a firm message about Jurgen Klopp during a press conference ahead of the Premier League clash
Liverpool will face Sunderland with Arne Slot desperately needing three points against a team who haven’t lost at home all season.
The Reds’ campaign reached a fresh low point on Sunday following their 2-1 defeat to Manchester City at Anfield. The Reds went ahead against Pep Guardiola’s side courtesy of Dominik Szoboszlai’s spectacular free kick. Nevertheless, Slot’s men once more crumbled in the closing stages as City clinched victory with two late strikes.
Sunderland will present a tough challenge for Champions League-chasing Liverpool, with Szoboszlai unavailable for Slot after his dismissal in the City encounter. Slot is grappling with a mounting injury crisis at Anfield, but has confirmed one Liverpool star will not start against Sunderland. Here’s all the latest news from Anfield.
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Dominik Szoboszlai ban explained
Szoboszlai will miss the encounter with Sunderland following his red card against City. The Hungarian midfielder was sent off in peculiar circumstances after tracking back alongside Erling Haaland, before tumbling to the ground as Haaland dragged him down while chasing Rayan Cherki’s effort.
City’s French forward thought he’d scored from the halfway line with Alisson stranded, but after VAR intervention, Craig Pawson overturned the decision. Szoboszlai was deemed to have denied a clear goalscoring opportunity after hauling back the Norwegian striker earlier during their race, before both players tangled and fell.
Pawson disallowed the goal and brought play back after the advantage supposedly didn’t develop from the foul on Haaland. Liverpool’s key player will now face a one-match suspension for preventing an obvious goalscoring chance rather than three games for other red card offences.
This ensures he’ll be available for next weekend’s FA Cup tie with Brighton and Hove Albion and the trip to Nottingham Forest on February 22.
Star receives another setback
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Despite Liverpool confronting a shortage at right-back, defender Calvin Ramsay won’t be utilised in that role.
Both Jeremie Frimpong and Conor Bradley, the primary and backup right-backs in the squad, are sidelined through injury, while Szoboszlai, who has filled in at full-back, faces suspension.
Joe Gomez might recover from injury but remains uncertain, while Slot is also without centre-back Giovanni Leoni. However, Ramsay, who joined from Aberdeen in 2022, still doesn’t seem to be considered for filling the void after Slot bluntly dismissed the overlooked player’s prospects of featuring for Liverpool in the Premier League.
“In general, if you don’t win a game, the players who aren’t playing become the best players in the squad,” Slot said at a press conference on Tuesday. “That’s the same everywhere in the world. This is an example of that as well.#
“I just want to protect all my players. I’ve chosen other players until now, and that’s also what I’m going to do tomorrow.”
Slot hinted that midfielders Curtis Jones and Wataru Endo could be preferred over the Scot, who has struggled for first team football throughout his early career.
Ramsay joined Liverpool for just over £4m under Jurgen Klopp, but has spent a lot of time away from the club, with loan spells at Preston, Bolton, Wigan and Kilmarnock where he seldom featured and is yet to start a Premier League game for the Reds.
Arne Slot makes Jurgen Klopp sack point
Slot believes there are no guarantees that he will keep his job at Liverpool if the club fail to qualify for the Champions League – but pointed out owners Fenway Sports Group didn’t sack Jurgen Klopp when he missed out on it in the 2022–23 season having finished fifth.
Just months after winning the Premier League in his debut campaign, Slot’s side are now sixth, six points off Manchester United in fourth.
Asked if a failure to qualify for the competition could affect his prospects of keeping his job, Slot said: “That is a difficult question for me to answer because I don’t decide on my future. The only thing I do know is that it happened before and recently and it didn’t affect the future of that manager.
“But that doesn’t guarantee anything, of course. In general, managers, especially at this club – maybe somewhere else – it is not only about results. Mainly, but not only.
“At some clubs they also look at the progress the players make, the progress the team makes, the circumstances are sometimes taken into account.
“That is not at all clubs, but I think I am working at a club that does look at those things, as it has shown in the past when the club did not qualify for the Champions League.”