ARNE SLOT EXPLAINS HOW HE AND HIS STAFF HAVE MANAGED TO AVOID A LIVERPOOL INJURY PILE-UP WITH JUST TRENT ALEXANDER-ARNOLD CURRENTLY SIDELINED FOR THE REDS 03:00, 06 Feb 2025Updated 12:00, 06

Feb 2025 Arne Slot has paid tribute to the Liverpool performance staff who have enabled him to work with virtually a full complement of players heading into a critical period of the season.

Saturday's 2-0 win at Bournemouth saw the Reds boss able to select from a fully-fit squad, meaning Federico Chiesa and Joe Gomez were chosen to be left back on Merseyside and outside

of the 20-man contingent and while Trent Alexander-Arnold is currently sidelined with a thigh issue picking up in the win at the Vitality, he is not expected to be out of action for too

new hint on future after transfer speculation Before that, however, Slot's team turn their attention to cup action, with the Reds hosting Tottenham in the second leg of their Carabao

Cup semi-final tie on Thursday night before a trip to Championship outfit Plymouth Argyle in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Sunday afternoon. Alexander-Arnold aside, Slot has a wealth of

options at his disposal for the semi-final second leg, which is quite the contrast from February of 2024, when Jurgen Klopp was dealing with a raging injury crisis that at one point stood at

13 players on the shelf. "I hope there is more to it than luck because we try to work in a certain way," Slot says of the lack of absentees at present. "Yeah, it is a bit

difficult to tell you how we work and I cannot compare to how it was beforehand. "I can only say the staff I have been working with at Feyenoord and now, there is a very good

cooperation there and now here. And that has led to the fact that at Feyenoord and now here, we haven't had many injuries. "We do have clear ideas about how we work and it's

about which training session you do and when you do it. And also when you do it if you play two or three games in a week. But we would have to sit down for a few hours to explain all the

things we do. Fortunately for me they (the staff) have a lot of knowledge of what to do and when to do it and then they just tell me every single day." Slot brought performance coach

Ruben Peeters with him to Anfield to work alongside head physios Lee Nobes and Chris Morgan, head of physical performance Dr Conall Murtagh and director of medicine Jonathan Power, who it is

understood heads up the department, and the Reds boss has been delighted with the backroom staff who have helped keep most of the key men in peak condition across the course of the

campaign. Article continues below Slot added: "There is definitely an idea behind it and I cannot compare to last year, I don't know what happened. That could have been bad luck,

was it always a bad situation? Maybe one year was bad luck if in all the other years he (Klopp) didn't have a lot of injuries. That I don't know, I don't know how they worked.

"The only thing I know was why I wanted to bring my own performance coach (Peeters) with me as well, who is working in great cooperation with the ones we had over here and he is

showing that also at Feyenoord we kept our players fit - available is a better word - but we were always one of the fittest teams in the league as well when it came to running or the last 25

minutes of the game."