Arne Slot has praised Liverpool’s performance staff for their efforts in ensuring he has nearly a full complement of players as the team enters a crucial part of the season.
Saturday’s 2-0 victory over Bournemouth saw the Reds boss able to select from a fully-fit squad.
As a result, Federico Chiesa and Joe Gomez were named as left-backs on Merseyside, missing out on the 20-man matchday squad.
While Trent Alexander-Arnold is sidelined with a thigh injury sustained during the win at the Vitality Stadium, he is expected to be back in action soon.
This means Liverpool could have a full squad available for selection when they face Everton next week, with the opportunity to extend their Premier League lead to nine points over Arsenal.
Before that, however, Slot’s focus turns to cup competitions.
The Reds will host Tottenham in the second leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final on Thursday night, followed by a trip to Championship side Plymouth Argyle in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Sunday afternoon.
Aside from Alexander-Arnold’s absence, Slot has a wealth of options at his disposal for the semi-final second leg.
This is a stark contrast to February 2024, when Jurgen Klopp was navigating a severe injury crisis, with 13 players sidelined at one point.
“I hope there is more to it than luck because we try to work in a certain way,” Arne Slot says of the lack of absentees at present.
“Yeah, it is a bit difficult to tell you how we work and I cannot compare to how it was beforehand.
“I can only say the staff I have been working with at Feyenoord and now, there is a very good cooperation there and now here.
“And that has led to the fact that at Feyenoord and now here, we haven’t had many injuries.
“We do have clear ideas about how we work and it’s about which training session you do and when you do it.
“And also when you do it if you play two or three games in a week.
“But we would have to sit down for a few hours to explain all the things we do.
“Fortunately for me they (the staff) have a lot of knowledge of what to do and when to do it and then they just tell me every single day.”
Slot added: “There is definitely an idea behind it and I cannot compare to last year, I don’t know what happened.
“That could have been bad luck, was it always a bad situation?
“Maybe one year was bad luck if in all the other years he (Klopp) didn’t have a lot of injuries.
“That I don’t know, I don’t know how they worked.
“The only thing I know was why I wanted to bring my own performance coach (Peeters) with me as well, who is working in great cooperation with the ones we had over here and he is showing that also at Feyenoord we kept our players fit – available is a better word – but we were always one of the fittest teams in the league as well when it came to running or the last 25 minutes of the game.”
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