Liverpool earned two victories over Athletic Bilbao in a double-header at Anfield but they were short of defenders.
Liverpool are sweating on two defenders for the start of their Premier League title defence.
Liverpool face FA Cup holders Crystal Palace in the Community Shield at Wembley on Sunday. They then begin their 2025-26 campaign against AFC Bournemouth on Friday 15 August.
The Reds are already a centre-back short after selling Jarell Quansah to Bayer Leverkusen. Meanwhile, Joe Gomez is currently absent with an Achilles problem which caused him to leave the tour of Asia.
In addition, captain Virgil van Dijk was absent against Bilbao because of illness and Alisson Becker was still unavailable after departing the Far East for a personal reason. Slot is expecting that van Dijk and Alisson will be back against Palace but is not sure about Gomez or Bradley.
Speaking to the club’s website, the Anfield head coach said: “Almost all of them are fit or stayed fit. Unfortunately, Virgil is sick today. We miss out on Alisson. Joe Gomez is not there, Conor Bradley is not there.
“But until now we have stayed fit as we wanted to be and new signings came in so they got adjusted to what we want. Looking forward first of all to today and then to the next weeks. Virgil normally not.Joe Gomez and Conor Bradley, it’s going to be tight. Alisson will be back in time as well.”
In the first game against Bilbao, Slot deployed Trey Nyoni as a makeshift centre-back. The 18-year-old midfielder has enjoyed an impressive pre-season so far. However, Nyoni looked like he was struggling with a slight hamstring issue before coming off in the first encounter.
On the victories over Athletic Bilbao, who finished fourth in La Liga last season, Slot told the club’s website: “I think in both games we created a lot of chances, scored seven goals – four in the first, three in the second – so that's very pleasing to see because we definitely didn't score every chance we had. Especially in the second game in the first half, I think we could have scored a few goals more than we did. So that pleased me most, the ability to create the chances and even to score seven goals over two games is also good.
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