'I spoke to him' - Arne Slot confirms Jarell Quansah situation and team news ahead of Brentford

Liverpool manager Arne Slot opened up on his decision to substitute Jarell Quansah at half-time against Ipswich Town.

The new manager raised eyebrows with his bold change to bring on Ibrahima Konate with the game still goalless at Portman Road. Yet, it led to a more coherent second-half from Liverpool, as they netted twice and restricted Kieran McKenna’s side to limited opportunities.

Still, it was a decision that was controversial and sparked debate. The 21-year-old was a breakthrough star last season under Jurgen Klopp despite only previously having 16 professional games in League One, courtesy of a loan at Bristol Rovers. His sharp ascent was assisted by a long-term-injury to Joel Matip last season which opened the door for regular minutes - and the academy graduate grabbed the opportunity with both hands, making 34 appearances, scoring three times.

His figures for last weekend showed that he won 50% of both his ground and aerial duels, made three clearances, one last man tackle, one tackle, one interception and blocked one shot - as well as managing a 89% pass success rate. However, the overall balance and the lack of control was cited as the main reason for his substitution.

Slot was asked about the situation in regards to facing Brentford at Anfield and he confirmed they have discussed the situation but a minor knock could see him miss out on Sunday. "[He reacted] in a way you would expect a player to react. I spoke to him immediately after the game, I spoke to him the day after. At the end of that conversation he asked if he could train on Sunday. So he should have done recovery, he wanted to train. Unfortunately, I think, on Tuesday, that he picked up a bit of an injury, so he couldn't train on Wednesday, we will see if he can train today.

"He reacted in a way that every player should react. I don't think there was that much in to it, although. Maybe the language was a problem, what I said was that he did not lose every duel, but he lost one or two important ones, one of them just before half-time. From what's been told to me it sounds like what I said was that he lost every duel."

Liverpool are set to be unchanged apart from that injury news; they have a full strength side and it is likely that they will continue with the same side that began the second-half against Ipswich.

In terms of Thomas Frank’s side, Ivan Toney is expected to be absent amid ongoing transfer uncertainty over his future. Outside of that, they are still missing a handful of longer-term injuries that includes Aaron Hickey, Rico Henry, Joshua Dasilva and Igor Thiago.