Liverpool look likely to have to shuffle the pack as they face Man United on Sunday.
The Reds’ annual hectic fixture schedule is starting to come to a close, with seven days between the win over West Ham and the meeting with United.
But despite the relatively long break, Arne Slot now has some new issues to contend with after Sunday’s 5-0 battering of the Hammers.
The biggest of those is that Joe Gomez looks set to miss a while with a hamstring problem.
Gomez has been good while stepping in for the injured Ibrahima Konate, but has now gone down with an issue himself.
At West Ham, with Konate still out, Jarell Quansah stepped in for just his fifth Premier League appearance of the campaign. As he looks set to go again for United, Slot gave his verdict on Quansah’s performance.
Arne Slot happy with Jarell Quansah display
Quansah has had to be patient this season. Despite ending last term as Jurgen Klopp’s preferred partner for Virgil van Dijk, the Liverpool academy graduate has slipped down the pecking order.
Quansah even began this season as Slot’s number two, but that all changed after he struggled at Ipswich on the opening day.
Since then, the 21-year-old has fallen below both Konate and Gomez to be Slot’s fourth pick at centre-back.
It still remains to be seen just how long Konate is missing for, the feeling is that it may be possible for the Frenchman to come back over the coming weeks. But speaking in his post-match press conference on Sunday, Slot said that he was more than happy with what he’d seen from Quansah at West Ham.
“If you look at Jarell Quansah today, hasn’t played a lot until now, a few appearances,” began the Liverpool head coach.
“The way he played today shows also that is [the case] – that we keep working with these players because we’re going to need all of them at a certain moment. Today Jarell played a very good game for us.”
Quansah ready to take Liverpool chance
It has been a difficult campaign for Quansah so far. Even when the England U21 star has played, he has struggled at times.
Naturally having been hauled out of the team, his confidence seems to have taken a little bit of a battering.
| Minutes Played | Accurate Passes | Tackles Won | Blocks | Duels Won | |
| Jarell Quansah vs West Ham | 53 | 45/45 | 1/1 | 1 | 2/3 |
Because of that, it was especially pleasing to see him looking back to his dominant best against West Ham.
It’s true that the Hammers did not really test both he and Van Dijk an awful lot. But Quansah still looked quality on the ball and did what was asked of him without any trouble.
The youngster took his chance once before when thrown in at the deep end at Liverpool. It may not be good news for Konate or Gomez, but Jarell now has the chance to impress everyone all over again.
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