Slot: No rest for Liverpool´s stars against Man Utd

Arne Slot has rubbished suggestions that he could rest some of Liverpool’s star names for the visit of Manchester United.

Slot’s side are six points clear of Arsenal at the top of the Premier League with a game in hand, while United sit in 14th and are on a run of four straight defeats in all competitions.

Liverpool have lost just one of their last 13 Premier League games against United (W7 D5), going down 2-1 at Old Trafford in August 2022.

Despite the chasm between these huge rivals, Slot believes United are still better than their position in the table suggests, and he can see an eventual upturn in form under new head coach Ruben Amorim, with the Dutchman aware that his side cannot rest on their laurels on Sunday.

“No of course not,” said Slot when asked about the possibility of resting players.

“For me, they have much better players than maybe the league table shows at the moment. It might take a while for Ruben to bring this out of the players but they are much better than the league table shows.

“He’s done so well at Sporting and I think he has a good squad of players so he will eventually bring the best out of them.”

Key to Liverpool’s imperious form this season has been Mohamed Salah’s sustained brilliance.

Salah has been involved in 30 Premier League goals this season for Liverpool (17 goals, 13 assists), scoring and assisting in eight different games, already the most by a player in a single campaign ever.

It is the fifth time he has 30+ goal involvements in a season (also 2017-18, 2018-19, 2021-22 and 2022-23), the joint most of any player in Premier League history along with Alan Shearer.

The Egyptian also has a fantastic record against United. Salah has both scored more goals (12) and provided more assists (six) against the Red Devils than any other player in Premier League history.

However, when asked if Salah was the world’s best player at this moment, Slot suggested it is difficult to compare players in different positions and different competitions.

“If I only look at my own team, Virgil [van Dijk] also has an outstanding season but he doesn’t have the numbers because he is a defender,” said Slot.

Liverpool’s boss also confirmed that Ibrahima Konate and Conor Bradley were back in training, but that Joe Gomez would be out for weeks following a hamstring injury sustained at West Ham.