Liverpool boss Arne Slot explained why he decided to leave Federico Chiesa from his team for Tuesday’s match against Galatasaray. The incumbent Premier League champion is hoping to return to how to win after slipping into the first defeat of the campaign against Crystal Palace. They are about to win the opening Champions League match against Atletico Madrid and win two from their two outings in Türkiye.
Chiesa, who scored in a loss to the Palace, was lined up to face Galatasaray after joining the Liverpool side for the Champions League squad. He was drafted to replace the injured Giovanni Leoni. However, the former was not included in the 21-person group due to Tuesday’s fixture.
Explaining the decision at a press conference Monday, Slot said: “He relaxed a bit. I think it’s a word in the final game with the palace. He couldn’t finish the session (with training) that he tried it, so I decided a few days later that he wasn’t going to take him out because he was Chelsea.”
Who is starting ahead of time for Liverpool, yet we can’t see returning from the one-game ban that Hugo Ekicchique served the palace. Alexander Isaac also wants the feature after opening his Reds account with a victory at Southampton.
Whatever happens, it’s important for the Merseyside giants to defeat Galatasarei in the away soil and return to the saddle.
“We don’t play to have ownership. We play to score goals and win the game,” Slot replied when asked how Liverpool would approach the fixture.
“As long as (Liverpool) exists, they have more ownership than other teams. The team is so strong they are willing to defend.
“The teams are managed very well and are very well suited. They’re getting more and more difficult to play, so we’ve brought in some great attackers who can help unlock these roadblocks, but it’s not easy for any team.”
After his defeat to the palace, we quized whether he had defensive concerns. Slot states:
“We recognized four goals from the set piece, so we changed the fullback, but we made a little more. We look back at the acknowledged goals in detail, but the first thing that is not the new fullback is a problem.
“We need 11 players to work very hard to stop chances. You can work hard just by what you want, but set pieces are another game in the game.
“We have to prove we’re unlucky about it because it could happen as it was hardly recognized by the set pieces last season. But we’re looking at teams that win Premier League games for the set pieces, so we definitely need to improve.”
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