Liverpool suffer double injury doubt ahead of Villa

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Liverpool will host Aston Villa in their Premier League clash at Anfield on Saturday night, with pressure mounting on Arne Slot to deliver a result.

The Reds have now lost six of their last seven games in all competitions, suffering a 3-0 defeat to Crystal Palace in the Carabao Cup last night.

With a shot at the League Cup now well and truly out of the picture, Slot must focus on the challenging upcoming fixtures, which include league games against Villa and Manchester City, alongside a highly anticipated clash with Real Madrid in the Champions League.

The Anfield faithful will be extremely frustrated with the current situation on Merseyside, and this would only have been heightened by the squad selection last night, which included just two first-team players.

Federico Chiesa and Alexis Mac Allister were the only experienced squad members in the Palace defeat, with almost the entire starting side given the night off.

Indeed, Slot is dealing with some injury issues behind the scenes, with Alisson Becker, Ryan Gravenberch, Alexander Isak, Jeremie Frimpong, Giovanni Leoni, and Curtis Jones all suffering spells on the sidelines.

This is not an ideal situation for the Dutch manager as he heads into a challenging period of fixtures, which could explain his thought process when selecting the Carabao Cup squad.

Following the defeat at Anfield, Slot took to his post-match press conference to give an update on Isak, Gravenberch, and Jones ahead of the upcoming game with Villa.

The Liverpool manager revealed:

“Ryan has a good chance [of being back for the weekend]. The other ones, let’s wait and see.”

Not including more than two senior players in the squad last night was a huge risk for Slot after crashing out of the cup, so there will be enormous pressure on Saturday evening.

Under the lights at Anfield, you would hope and expect Liverpool to dominate after a week’s rest for key players. However, whether that transpires on the pitch after recent performances remains to be seen.

The potential boost of Gravenberch’s return would be warmly welcomed by Liverpool fans, who have endured a defensive disasterclass on several occasions in his absence.

The 23-year-old Dutchman, who has flourished in a new-look defensive midfield role under Slot, has become integral to the success the manager has achieved during his short time on Merseyside.

As a result, having him back for the clash with Villa to help silence the incredible attacking threat of Unai Emery’s side would be massively beneficial given the current circumstances.

Does a defeat to Villa spell serious trouble for Slot’s role at the club?

Probably not. Liverpool are renowned for trusting the process with their managers in almost every scenario since their inception, but there is no doubt Slot will bear the weight of his failures if he doesn’t deliver.

That being said, a comeback is long overdue for both the manager and the squad at this point; the idea that this slump could continue seems unfathomable when you consider the club’s recent success.

Rebekka Arnold is an experienced writer with a strong background in digital media, PR and football journalism.

Since 2021, Rebekka has written opinion pieces and match reaction content for Football Fancast, part of the Snack Media network, building on her growing presence in the football community through viral Twitter content and podcasting.

Now at Transfer Tavern, Rebekka brings her sharp eye for analysis and deep passion for the game to deliver engaging football opinion and breaking transfer news content.