Liverpool maintains momentum despite international break, according to Arne Slot

LONDON – Liverpool and Manchester City, the reigning English Premier League champions, have both achieved a perfect record in their first three league matches. Reds manager Arne Slot is pleased with the strong start and is focused on maintaining this momentum.

The English top flight resumes after the international break, and the Dutchman was optimistic that his players will not have lost momentum ahead of his side’s home game against Nottingham Forest on Sept 14.

“It’s always the question (of losing momentum) after two weeks but it is still there for the individuals,” Slot said on Sept 13. “If you saw them play with their national team then the momentum is still there.

“We look at ourselves a lot and we relate it to the team we face and Forest have done well too, so it will be an interesting one and one we look forward to.

“We’ve been really strong with one game every seven days and I assume they all want to play every game so they have to show up with quality and work rate. But we also have more than 11 quality players, so we will use them.”

Going by his words, it is difficult to guess if he would rotate his squad, but he did confirm that Liverpool will be without midfielder Harvey Elliott for several weeks due to a fractured foot.

It is disappointing news for the Reds ahead of a gruelling stretch of seven games across three competitions over the next three weeks.

Slot is expecting to have Alexis Mac Allister back, however, in the middle of the park.

“Harvey’s injury is, of course, not a just big disappointment for him but also for us,” the Liverpool boss said. “He didn’t play a lot in the first three games but he showed himself really well in pre-season.

“He would have had a lot of playing time in the upcoming fixtures but that goes to someone else.”

Mac Allister returned to training on Sept 12, Slot said, adding: “I’m expecting Macca to be with us (Saturday).”

Meanwhile, he also said there was no news on the contracts of captain Virgil van Dijk, talisman Mohamed Salah and right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold:

“It’s again the boring answer that you’ll get from me. We don’t talk about contract news here,” Slot said. “It is not disruptive because we work with the team and try to get the best out of them.”