‘I need all my players’ – Arne Slot appears to send veiled message to FSG after Liverpool defeat

Arne Slot appeared to send a pointed message to the Liverpool hierarchy following the 3-2 defeat at Bournemouth, which was costly in more ways than one.

A night laden with farcical goals from a Reds perspective began with Alisson Becker accidentally clattering into Joe Gomez whilst unsuccessfully trying to prevent Evanilson from opening the scoring.

While the defender was being attended to off the pitch, Alex Jimenez doubled the Cherries’ lead before Wataru Endo had the chance to come on, a situation that Jamie Redknapp bluntly described as ‘amateurish‘.

The defeat to Bournemouth comes less than 48 hours after shock reports that Tottenham Hotspur are actively working on a deal to sign Andy Robertson, whose prospective departure in the coming days could further reduce Liverpool’s already threadbare spread of defensive options.

The 31-year-old was substituted on at half-time tonight in place of Milos Kerkez, who endured a difficult first half on his return to the Vitality Stadium.

Slot: ‘I need all my players’

When asked after the match if the Reds still ‘need’ the Scottish left-back, the head coach told Sky Sports: “I think I need all my players. Robbo had to come in at half-time, in my opinion. I always knew that for Milos, another 90 minutes against a very intense Bournemouth side was not a possibility for him.

“I always knew I had to bring him in, but I already had one substitution in the first half and then you only have two [sub windows] left, so let’s bring Robbo on at half-time to make sure that Milos stays available for the rest of the season.

“There’s a lot of games to play with the players we have available. I have to manage that as well because the last thing we need right now is another injury.”

Is Slot sending a pointed message to FSG over transfer activity?

Cynics would suggest that Slot’s decision to substitute Kerkez wasn’t pre-planned and was instead in response to a tough night at the office for the Hungarian, who was culpable over Jimenez’s goal, but the head coach’s point about managing players’ minutes is nonetheless a pertinent one.

With Ibrahima Konate on compassionate leave, Gomez’s injury required rarely-used midfielder Wataru Endo to deputise at centre-back against Bournemouth, a far from ideal scenario which lays bare just how stretched Liverpool are for defensive options.

The growing possibility of losing Robertson to Spurs in the coming days is painful for Reds fans to contemplate not just because of our emotional attachment to the Scot, but also because of the sparsity of squad depth.

In saying that he needs ‘all’ of his players, was Slot perhaps sending a pointed message to FSG that he’s desperate for the 31-year-old not to be sold in this transfer window?

Liverpool are already hugely reliant on Jeremie Frimpong, Virgil van Dijk and Konate to stay fit due to the dearth of available understudies, and we face a nervous wait to see how badly Gomez was injured in his collision with Alisson.

To sell Robertson in January without signing a defensive replacement would be negligible in the extreme from the Anfield hierarchy, whose decisions between now and deadline day could have lasting consequences in terms of whether or not we salvage Champions League qualification from this train wreck of a season.

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