Arne Slot gives frank assessment of Liverpool’s readiness to defend Premier League title

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot has revealed how ready he feels the membership is to defend their Premier League title.

The champions begin the defence of their crown on Friday night towards Bournemouth at Anfield. The Reds emphatically gained the title final season, ending ten factors forward of nearest challengers Arsenal and secured the trophy with a month to spare. Nevertheless, it’s been a turbulent pre-season for Slot and the membership.

Earlier than even kicking a ball, the tragic passing of Diogo Jota despatched shockwaves by the membership and the soccer world. The Portuguese ahead died alongside his brother following a automobile crash in Spain on July 3. However, amongst an outpouring of emotion and tributes, Arne Slot led his gamers on to the pitch simply ten days later of their first pre-season pleasant towards Preston North Finish.

The squad then launched into a pre-season tour of Asia, the place cracks throughout the defensive unit began to point out, and a 4-2 loss to AC Milan solely highlighted Slot’s greatest problem this season. The departure of Jarell Quansah to Bayer Leverkusen and an harm to Joe Gomez has left Liverpool with simply two recognised senior centre-backs — captain Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konaté.

Regardless of two victories towards Athletic Membership, related issues arose, and have been absolutely uncovered towards within the penalty defeat within the Neighborhood Protect towards Crystal Palace on Sunday.

Talking in a press convention forward of the match towards Bournemouth, Slot gave an sincere and frank evaluation of how ready the staff are.

“[We’re] as prepared as we may be. I emphasised final week on the truth that we’ve misplaced three or 4 starters, and sadly Ryan Gravenberch wasn’t capable of play final week and isn’t capable of play this week. So, which means should you exclude the goalkeeper from the ten outfield positions, [there are] 5 who’re totally different than the primary starters we had final season.

Then should you have a look at the standard on the ball, I’m very pleased with that. With out the ball, it’s eight out of ten occasions additionally superb, however the purpose of this membership isn’t eight out of ten occasions, it’s ten out of ten occasions, and that’s the fine-tuning we nonetheless want to seek out defensively.”

The acknowledgment that there’s room for enchancment will come as no shock, with the Dutch coach having fielded questions in regards to the defensive fragility all through the summer season. While the membership has strengthened in different areas, spending over £300 million on new expertise, the center of defence has been a evident omission.

The studies that the membership are closing in on 18-year-old Giovanni Leoni will come as welcome information to Reds’ followers, however the Italian U19 worldwide is seen as a long-term successor to van Dijk slightly than a direct starter. Nevertheless, the persistent noise round a transfer for Crystal Palace’s Marc Guéhi could possibly be the answer Slot is searching for.

When pressed about signing each gamers, Slot might solely share what data he had.

“The membership have agreed a deal [for Leoni]however he hasn’t signed for us but. The second he indicators for us I can go into extra element.

And the opposite one [Guéhi] is after all the reply you at all times get from me. He’s not our participant and sadly he was the captain of the staff we misplaced agsinst final Sunday. If you wish to have any talks about him you must go to Palace, to Glasner, and ask him.”

For now, Slot is working with what he has, however with one centre-back coming in and one other being mentioned, it’s clear Liverpool are nonetheless lively within the switch market and the top coach’s phrases counsel he feels the membership aren’t fairly the place they have to be with a view to retain the Premier League title.