Liverpool 2-0 Brighton: match review
Liverpool injury update on Dominik Szoboszlai and Joe Gomez after the 2-0 victory over Brighton in the Premier League.
Arne Slot has provided an injury update on Joe Gomez after Liverpool’s victory over Brighton.
The Reds earned a 2-0 win against the Seagulls at Anfield, with Hugo Ekitike firing a double for the second time in as many matches,
Ekitike opened the scoring inside the first minute as he was assisted by Gomez’s brave header. But midway through the first half, the defender went down with a fitness problem and had to be withdrawn for Mo Salah, having returned to Liverpool’s squad after being omitted for the Champions League win over Inter Milan.
The Reds were already without right-backs Conor Bradley (suspension) and Jeremie Frimpong (hamstring), along with defensive midfielder Wataru Endo (ankle) while centre-back Giovanni Leoni (ACL) won’t play again this season.
Liverpool turn their attention to a trip to Tottenham Hotspur next weekend. And Slot admitted that Gomez is very unlikely to feature. Speaking to LFCTV, the Anfield head coach said: “When a player goes out with a muscle injury as Joe did, it's normally not a positive thing. I think it's going to be tough for him to play next week, but sometimes there's a positive surprise.
“Now maybe people understand a little better why I have been so careful about using him in so many games.”
After Gomez’s withdrawal, Dominik Szoboszlai had to deputise on the right-hand side of defence. However, the Hungary international was taken off in the 83rd minute as he sustained an ankle issue. Slot added: “With Dominik Szoboszlai, there is an ankle injury. It didn't look very good when I met him now, but he has an incredible mentality, so let's hope for the best.”
The Athletic suggests that both Gomez and Szoboszlai will have scans to determine the severity of their respective injuries.
Slot then told beIN Sport on the duo: “If there are not so many players available, everyone can understand you don't have one-one-one subtituttions for every position. That means in the first half, if your full-back goes out, and we had to be very careful with him in the last few weeks where people maybe expected him more and more and more if I was complaining about not having a full-back. But we always knew that we had to take care of Joe and today showed probably again why. As a result, Dominik had to play as a full-back and he had to go out so Curtis had to play there.”
Having opened the scoring, Ekitike doubled the lead on the hour mark when he headed home Salah’s corner. Liverpool’s victory stretched their unbeaten run to five games and they moved up to sixth in the Premier League table.
On Liverpool’s performance, Slot said via Match of the Day: "Hard work. We had to work really hard for this win because we faced a very good team that kept going to the end. For the first time in weeks, I feel like we had a bit of luck today. We have a clean sheet and in other games we have conceded three without the other team having as many chances.
"In the second half in the moments they had, when we were together in and around our box. We had chances on the counter but I quite liked the way we played. Maybe we deserved this bit of luck, because of the mentality that we showed and the injuries and other things like that."
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