Adrian Kajumba rounds up the key news from Friday's press conferences.
Arne Slot says Trent Alexander-Arnold is now ready to play a full match after Liverpool’s head coach opted to manage the right-back’s minutes in the opening weeks of the season.
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Alexander-Arnold had been taken off late in the second half of each of Liverpool’s first three Premier League fixtures against Ipswich Town, Brentford and Manchester United.
But he lasted the entirety of England’s UEFA Nations League encounters against the Republic of Ireland and Finland, producing player of the match performances in both.
Slot said: “I think he is completely ready to play 90 [minutes]. Sometimes in the beginning it was that I saw he was tired and sometimes it is also about having another player like Conor Bradley who can do the job really well.
“So he is able to play 90 like all the others but I have a whole team to manage and prepare for the season and it’s also good for Conor to get his playing minutes or for the one that comes in for Mohamed [Salah] or whichever other players I have taken off. I have to prepare the whole team, whole squad for the upcoming fixtures.”
Happy with players' minutes during international break
Alexander-Arnold was one of 10 members of Slot's squad to play the whole of both games for their countries during the international break, something the Dutchman considered a positive rather than negative.
“In some situations I was really happy that they played 90 [minutes]. Jarell Quansah I think he played two times 90. Kostas Tsimikas played two times 90, Cody [Gakpo] played a lot of minutes, Bradley played two times 90.
“For now it was a present I got from most of the national coaches. Maybe in the future I will sometimes love it to be a little bit different but it’s a positive thing that we are in such a good place that we have 10 players that can play every minute for their national team. It says a lot about the quality we have.”
Disappointed for Elliott
Midfielder Harvey Elliott was forced to miss England Under-21’s matches against Northern Ireland and Austria after suffering a foot injury which will reportedly rule him out for at least a month.
“It’s a big disappointment for him [Elliott] but not only for him, also for us because availability is important in a phase of the season where we play seven games in 22 days.
“He didn’t play that much in the first three games but he played a lot in pre-season and showed himself really well. If he stayed fit he would have had a lot of playing time in the upcoming fixtures but now he isn’t that gives a chance to someone else.”
Liverpool’s squad could be boosted by the availability of winger Federico Chiesa who may make his debut against Nottingham Forest on Saturday following his arrival from Juventus late in the transfer window.
“Federico has trained with the team now three or four times so let’s see how he does today and which decision I make because we have more than 20 players.”
Slot also insisted the contract situations of captain Virgil van Dijk, Alexander-Arnold and Salah are not a distraction with the trio’s current deals all due to expire at the end of the season according to reports.
He added: “I am fully focused on the individuals and the team and they are part of the team. [We are] trying to work with them in the best possible way to get the best out of them, so it’s not a distraction for me at all.”
