Man City 3-0 Liverpool: Match Review
Liverpool face Nottingham Forest short of right-back options and Arne Slot has much to consider.
Arne Slot will be going through the pros and cons in his head.
Full-back is supposedly the easiest position to play in football. Yet the right-hand side of Liverpool’s defence has proven problematic so far this season and they have another issue.
Both recognised options are not fit for the Reds’ return to action following the international break. After five Premier League losses in six matches, it is hardly ideal. Slot would have known well in advance that Jeremie Frimpong would not be ready to face Nottingham Forest. The fact that the summer signing from Bayer Leverkusen won’t be back for two-to-three weeks, having missed the previous five games, underlines that.
But now Liverpool head into their clash against Nottingham Forest without Conor Bradley after he suffered an issue representing Northern Ireland. Having had a fitness problem at the start of the season, Bradley was just starting to build momentum and produced a stellar performance in the 1-0 victory over Real Madrid. However, this is now the fourth time of Slot’s tenure that the academy product will be confined to the treatment table. Slot has already admitted that Bradley will miss the next seven games over a 22-day period. Liverpool have a problem.
The Anfield boss suggested that he has three auxiliary options in Dominik Szoboszlai, Curtis Jones and Joe Gomez. However, the latter’s lack of regular football over the past year means he has to be managed cautiously. What’s more, Gomez’s favoured position is at centre-half.
Szoboszlai has filled in adeptly at right-back this season when required, with the highlight being his performance in a 1-0 win over league leaders Arsenal. But the Hungary international has been one of the best midfielders in the Premier League this season - and without doubt the Reds’ top performer.
But with Bradley, Wirtz, Frimpong and Giovanni Leoni all unavailable, Slot is depleted of numbers. The Liverpool head coach has opted for a smaller group of players this season. Excluding third-choice goalkeeper Freddie Woodman, the Reds are set to have 18 fit for action.
It is likely that Trey Nyoni helps make up the nine-man bench. The 19-year-old was spotted in training yesterday. And there will be supporters who hope that, rather than Woodman providing back-up to the returning Alisson Becker and Girogi Mamardashvili, Calvin Ramsay is involved in some part.
The right-back was a forgotten man at the start of the campaign. Ramsay joined the Reds in 2022 from Aberdeen for up to £4.2 million. Liverpool had high hopes for the Scotland international.
But a mixture of injuries and disappointing loans at Preston, Bolton, Wigan and Kilmarnock meant he dropped down to the under-21s’ squad after returning in the summer.
It was a surprise that Ramsay made a return to the first-team fray in last month’s Carabao Cup fourth-round tie against Crystal Palace. Slot made wholesale changes to his team and Ramsay was handed just a third senior appearance for Liverpool. He was plenty of fans’ man of the match in the 3-0 defeat to a Palace side that had several of their big-hitters featuring.
That proved to be a brief involvement in Slot’s set-up, though, as he was not involved against Aston Villa, Real Madrid or Manchester City. But with a gap opening, coupled with the under-21s now not playing a game until January, Ramsay may well be considered. He has not been part of a Premier League squad since a 2-1 win at Tottenham on 6 November 2022 - some 1113 days ago.
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