Arne Slot reveals extent of Liverpool defensive injuries as key midfielder with Under-21s

Liverpool will face Accrington Stanley for the first time since 1956 on Saturday, when the League Two side travel to Merseyside for their FA Cup third round clash. The Reds were drawn against the Lancashire side in December, marking only the second time in the clubs’ histories that the two will lock horns.

‘Accrington Stanley, who are they?’ The EFL side are currently 19th in League Two with just 25 points on the board for the season so far. However, they will make the trip to Anfield off the back of two consecutive league wins over Grimsby Town and Colchester United.

Saturday’s clash will be just the second time since 2017 that Liverpool have faced a team outside the Premier League at this stage in the FA Cup. The last time was a 4-1 win over Shrewsbury Town in 2022.

Arne Slot provided some fitness news ahead of the weekend’s clash, and following their Carabao Cup defeat to Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday.

Liverpool team news vs Accrington Stanley

Discussing opportunities for the likes of Conor Bradley and Harvey Elliott, the Reds manager said ‘every game is an opportunity’ for them to have the chance to play. Bradley started against Tottenham in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final, but he was replaced by Trent Alexander-Arnold as the Reds searched for a goal.

Dominik Szoboszlai missed Liverpool’s last two fixtures due to illness and was absent for the West Ham clash due to his yellow card suspension. Jarell Quansah was also taken off early against Spurs and replaced by Wataru Endō.

“Dom [Szoboszlai] trained with the U21s yesterday. Jarell [Quansah], like I said, was a bit ill last week, as a result of that I had to take him off during the game but I am expecting him to be available for tomorrow,” Slot said during his pre-match press conference.

Joe Gomez remains out of action after coming off against West Ham, with Slot quoting the defender to be out ‘for a while’. With Quansah’s recent withdrawal down to illness and no further issues, Liverpool only have Gomez sidelined through injury in the middle of their defence. Tyler Morton also recently rolled his ankle and was ruled out of contention to face Tottenham midweek.

Slot addresses Liverpool 2025 form

Liverpool entered the new year at the top of the Premier League table following a strong festive run of fixtures. The Reds scored 14 goals in three games, while their previous closest rivals Chelsea dropped points and fell significantly behind the top spot.

Since the turn of the new year, Liverpool are yet to get a win on the board but Slot isn’t concerned by what he’s seen of 2025 so far.

“I don’t see that many differences compared to many other games we’ve played. The only difference is we played these two games after winning 6-3 against Tottenham and 5-0 against West Ham. So if you compare to those standards, I do agree that the games against United and the last against Tottenham were of lower standards compared to those two.

“This whole season, we’ve won a lot of games and almost every game we won, maybe the only exception could be Chelsea, but all the other ones we’ve deserved to win but never by a big margin. It was always very tight, and if people ask me what can we improve, it’s increasing that margin because otherwise you always depend on a bit of luck or a certain decision. We must make sure we don’t depend on those moments.”