Having already brought you the news about Hugo Ekitike‘s (ยฃ8.7m) Gameweek 6 ban, we now turn our attention to the rest of the talking points from Liverpool’s EFL Cup win over Southampton.
And the main topic of debate above everything else is the fitness of Alexander Isak (ยฃ10.5m), given that a Premier League starting spot has just been freed up in attack.
RESULT
| Team | Opponent | Result | Goals | Assists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liverpool | Southampton | 2-1 win | Isak, Ekitike | Chiesa x2 |
SELECTION/ROTATION
| Team | No. of starting XI changes made from GW5 | Players who kept their places (mins played) | Mins for other players |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liverpool | 11 | n/a | Mamardashvili (90), Robertson (90), Frimpong (90), Gomez (90), Endo (90), Nyoni (90), Chiesa (90), Leoni (81), Ngumoha (75), Jones (57), Isak (45), Ekitike (41), Bradley (33), Danns (15), Kerkez (9) |
SLOT ON ISAK – WILL HE START IN GAMEWEEK 6?
Isak scored his first Liverpool goal on Tuesday, with Federico Chiesa (ยฃ6.4m) pouncing on a loose pass from Saints goalkeeper Alex McCarthy to tee up the Swede for a fairly routine finish.
The club-record signing perhaps should have scored before then, seeing an early shot saved. After an otherwise quiet 45 minutes, Isak was withdrawn at the break in a planned change.
So, then, what chance of a start in Gameweek 6?
In a post-match interview with ITV Sport, Arne Slot seemed to talk up the prospect.
“Yeah, we might need him [against Palace]. Yes. It’s been one week and two days now, I think, when his season… not even started because we played Burnley and didn’t take him. So, it’s been now, six or seven days ago that he played his first minutes for Liverpool. So yeah, that’s why also we took him off at half-time to have him available for the weekend again. And we might need him now, we were always going to play him in the weekend, either a shorter time or a longer time, but we might need him now a bit longer.” – Arne Slot on Alexander Isak, to ITV Sport
But in the subsequent press conference, Slot was a little more cautious.
“We got him not in the best circumstances in terms of match fitness, so we have to build it up. The downside to that if that you cannot play a player 90 minutes and if you only play him 45 or 30 or again like today 45, it might then normally take a while before he scores his first goal because we can all understand if you play a player three times 90, itโs a bigger chance that he scores a goal than when you play him 45, 30, 45.
“I think the best moment to start to see where he is and how much he can help us โ you can already see that he can help us โ but the best [will be] when he comes back hopefully from the Swedish national team, when he stayed fit, played there many minutes, plays for us in the upcoming weeks a few minutes. Then I think after that, then his pre-season has ended and we can expect even more from him. But until now, Iโm very happy with what Iโve seen from him.” – Arne Slot on Alexander Isak, in his post-match presser
Even Isak himself didn’t oversell his match fitness, talking in terms of “making of difference”.
“I feel good, I feel good. Obviously, it’s still early. I think with every game I play, it’s very helpful and gets me in better shape. I’m just getting more and more ready.
“It’s difficult to say [how close I am to being 100 per cent fit]. I think it’s a mixture of fitness-wise and also football-wise. I feel good, I feel like I’m in a shape to at least make a difference.” – Alexander Isak
As for Ekitike, Slot and Andrew Robertson (ยฃ5.9m) waded in on the Frenchman after full-time, calling his sending off – one booking for dissent, one for removing his shirt after his goal – “stupid”.
11 CHANGES AS CHIESA TAKES HIS CHANCE
Slot has other centre-forward options for Gameweek 6, including Florian Wirtz (ยฃ8.2m) โ who featured as a false nine in pre-season โ and Cody Gakpo (ยฃ7.7m).
Another is the versatile Chiesa.
The Italian, a peripheral figure at Anfield since his 2024 move, had arguably his best game in a Liverpool shirt on Tuesday. Starting on the right wing, he moved into the second striker role and then the left flank in the second half.
Top in this match for both shots (four) and chances created (four), he assisted both Reds goals. Ekitike should have converted a Chiesa cross minutes before tapping in the winner, while the Italian also had a well-taken goal ruled out for offside.
He was one of the few second-string players to emerge with credit from this contest.
“I can accept completely that a team that plays for the first time together, players that havenโt played for a long time, that they donโt play as a team perfectly. But what I always want to see is players that try and work hard.
“So I said at half-time, for me it is completely not a coincidence that Federico picked the ball and assisted on the first [goal] because he was the one, in my opinion, that was most involved in the game, tried the most, worked the hardest. And then it wasnโt a coincidence again that he was the man that made a deep run [for the second goal]. Great ball by Robbo, by the way, who also has won so much at this club and also understands how to play this game: not underestimate it, just always be ready to play.
“Thatโs also the way to get yourself either back in the team or get as much playing minutes as you want. Thatโs why I was happy with a few individual performances but far from happy with a few other individual performances.” – Arne Slot
The otherwise sub-par showing from the ‘reserves’ (Southampton outshot their hosts 13-10, having several chances to score before their scrambled 76th-minute equaliser) was good news for the Gameweek 5 starting XI. As were their midweek breathers, with Slot making 11 changes. Of the team that started Saturday’s Merseyside derby, only Ekitike, a half-time replacement for Isak, Conor Bradley (ยฃ5.0m) and Milos Kerkez (ยฃ5.9m) got on the pitch against the Saints.
A nice rest for Mohamed Salah (ยฃ14.5m) and co, then, ahead of this weekend.
LEONI INJURY
Liverpool aren’t blessed with options at centre-half. They may be even shorter of alternatives following the EFL Cup third round, with Giovanni Leoni (ยฃ5.0m) suffering what seemed to be a knee injury on Tuesday. He was stretchered off and looked visibly distressed.
“Of course, he is down because for him it didn’t feel good immediately, but this is something now we have to assess. Normally, these things don’t happen in five to 10 minutes; you have to wait for tomorrow to see how he comes in and then maybe do an MRI scan to know more about how serious it is.
“Normally, the emotions of a player tell you a lot. I saw during the weekend a player in the Dutch Eredivisie who went out completely in tears – Ruben van Bommel, by the way, of PSV – and a day later it proved to be that it was right. Let’s hope for the best.” – Arne Slot on Giovanni Leoni
Not much back-up left for Ibrahima Konate (ยฃ5.5m), then, although Joe Gomez (ยฃ5.0m) and Wataru Endo (ยฃ4.9m) are options.
Elsewhere at the back, Jeremie Frimpong (ยฃ5.9m) started and didn’t really convince at right-back. He looked more comfortable when moved to the right wing after an hour – and it’s there where we might see him in Gameweeks 17-21/22 when Salah is away at the Africa Cup of Nations.
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