A much rotated Liverpool gave a good account of themselves in midweek by beating Brighton.
The Reds have started the season in terrific form, meaning that a number of more fringe players are yet to truly get their chance.
That changed on Wednesday, as Arne Slot brought eight players into his starting line-up.
One of the three players to keep his place was, surprisingly, Andy Robertson. While many had expected back-up left-back Kostas Tsimikas to come in for the Carabao Cup, Slot stuck with Robertson.
The selection was notable as the 30-year-old has been in slightly patchy form of late. In fact, there is enough to suggest that picking him on Wednesday means Robertson has lost his place in Slot’s best XI.
We’ll likely know more on that front based on who the Liverpool head coach picks to play against Brighton once again on Saturday. And speaking ahead of that game, Slot gave an insight into his thinking.
Arne Slot details left-back battle
For all of Tsimikas’ time at the club the Greek has been second choice to Robertson.
Even when signing back in 2020, Kostas was brought in with the remit of pushing his older teammate and making him better.
Although he has struggled at various times, Tsimikas has largely done that very well indeed. It says a lot about his quality as a back-up that the 28-year-old is now closing in on 100 appearances for Liverpool.
But now, with Robertson struggling to find form, it feels like we could be about to see a shift. Perhaps Tsimikas is now the first choice. Asked whether he now has a ‘dilemma’ on the left-side of his defence, though, Slot said he didn’t really see things that way.
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“No, I wouldn’t say it’s a dilemma,” he answered. “It probably has to do with Robbo’s pre-season, he had no pre-season because he came back injured form the euros, he missed almost a full pre-season.
“Kostas did really well in that period of time so it has to do with quality Kostas brings in that position but also Robbo missing pre-season, so that’s why we started rotating a little bit.
“That’s the situation, it was good for him [Robertson] to play against Arsenal and Brighton and that makes sure he’s getting into that rhythm of playing twice a week.”
Who should be Liverpool’s first-choice left-back?
Throughout Robertson’s seven years at Liverpool, he has always been the undisputed first choice.
There has been very good reason for that. The Scotland captain has been a terrific servant for the club and is very much a Liverpool legend.
However, time waits for no man and despite being just 30, Robertson has looked like he’s been running out of steam recently.
The former Hull City man could easily still bounce back from that and perhaps he is just experiencing a small dip in form.
But with Tsimikas in good form when he has played, we think the ‘Scouse Greek’ should be the man with the shirt for the time being. We’d be surprised not to see Kostas in from the start on Saturday.
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