With players returning from international duty ahead of a busy period, Arne Slot must start to rotate his Liverpool team, but will that begin against Nottingham Forest?
The first phase of Slot’s tenure went almost perfectly to plan.
Now, though, comes a tougher test as he must navigate the Premier League, Champions League and League Cup without dropping points or losing games.
This is the run of games in which we will see whether Liverpool can challenge come May or if the new head coach will need more time to learn the role.
Here’s how Liverpool could line up against Forest.
Team News
What Slot revealed in his press conference:
- Harvey Elliott “would have had a lot of playing time” but is now injured
- Alexis Mac Allister expected “to be with us” for the match – this comes after experiencing adductor discomfort with Argentina
- Federico Chiesa is fit and has “trained with the team three or four times”
Liverpool’s XI vs. Nottingham Forest
There will be a temptation among supporters to rest some of Liverpool’s big names given the forthcoming trip to San Siro on Tuesday.
However, as Slot said in his press conference on Friday, he prefers to keep his starting XI together as often as possible.
For that reason, we’ve gone for an unchanged side as one of our predicted teams, though international niggles and minutes played could well mean he is forced to rest players.
Here are some of Slot’s possible thought processes:
This is how Liverpool would line up:
Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson; Gravenberch, Szoboszlai, Mac Allister; Salah, Jota, Diaz
As mentioned, Slot may be forced into changing a couple of his senior players who have had a busy international break.
Mac Allister and Robertson would be the obvious names to drop out, but the nature of Dominik Szoboszlai‘s tireless running during matches could also mean he would benefit from a rest.
Of course, Slot would be wise not to replace too many from his starting XI, with Nottingham Forest yet to lose this season in normal time:
- After two games and a goal for the Netherlands, Cody Gakpo replaces Diaz – who has just returned from South America
- Curtis Jones returns from injury as the Reds take no risks with Mac Allister
- Kostas Tsimikas comes in to allow Robertson a rest
Here’s how this rotated team would look:
Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Konate, Van Dijk, Tsimikas; Gravenberch, Szoboszlai, Jones; Salah, Jota, Gakpo
While the team to play Nottingham Forest may end up being the same as against Man United, it is in the games after and the next few weeks when we will learn how Slot plans to rotate.
The use of Liverpool’s midfielders should be especially interesting given that Slot has seemingly dismissed Wataru Endo as his first-choice option in this current particular system.
