Liverpool boss Arne Slot believes his squad are prepared to address a familiar failing that has hampered their season
Liverpool head coach Arne Slot
Liverpool head coach Arne Slot(Image: LFC TV)
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Arne Slot admits Liverpool have looked "vulnerable" at times this season but believes his squad are ready to address a recurring problem going into the most pivotal fortnight of their season.
Slot's side travel to Manchester City for their FA Cup quarter-final on Saturday lunchtime, after which they face Paris Saint-Germain in the last eight of the Champions League and key Premier League games at home to Fulham and a first Hill Dickinson Stadium derby against neighbours Everton.
Liverpool have been plagued by inconsistency this campaign as was shown recently when they followed up an impressive Champions League win over Galatasaray with a dreary top-flight loss at Brighton less than 63 hours later.
While Jeremie Frimpong could join Alisson Becker, Conor Bradley, Wataru Endo and Giovanni Leoni on the sidelines after being substituted just 12 minutes after coming on for Holland in midweek, the Reds' other internationals emerged unscathed from the latest round of national team duty.
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And with Mohamed Salah and Federico Chiesa expected to be back available and Alexander Isak having returned to full training, Slot is hopeful his squad can handle another intense period of games.
"Most of our players did play in the international break, but not all of them played twice for 90 minutes," said the Reds boss. "I expect them to be ready for the programme we are going to face.
"We've shown so many times this season that we can be a very good team. Unfortunately, we've also shown this season a few times that we look vulnerable, and we have to get the best out of ourselves as we've had many times this season.
"When we had good results, the results afterwards when they weren't as we wanted them to be had a lot to do with players not being available then, which we saw in the last game when we played Brighton.
"We played a very good game, in my opinion one of our best against Galatasaray. Then three days later we miss out on Alisson and we miss out on Mo. Three minutes into the game Hugo (Ekitike) needs to go off.
"I think it's fair to say that a few players in the second half struggled with the fact that we played 62 hours after the Galatasaray game and another game against an intense team.
"I hope and expect we can be the team that we were against Galatasaray."
Liverpool face Paris Saint-Germain for the second successive season in the Champions League having lost on penalties in the round of 16 last season, and travel this weekend to a City team who won the League Cup last time out when beating runaway Premier League leaders Arsenal.
And Slot said to liverpoolfc.com: "We probably play the toughest opponents you can face as well in the FA Cup as in the Champions League, but you always know if you end up in the quarter-finals that these are teams you can face.
"It's exciting for us. I think it's also for them challenging to play Liverpool.
"Unfortunately, we play Paris Saint-Germain first on Wednesday, then secondly on Tuesday. That means three games in seven days. But that is part of the end-phase of the season."