Press conferenceArne Slot on Liverpool injury news and team selection plans for Brighton cup tie

Full-back Bradley has missed the Reds’ last three matches, though Arne Slot reported on Tuesday morning he may be available for Wednesday night’s fourth-round game at Amex Stadium.

“Conor is training with us again so he could maybe be in the squad tomorrow. Jota not, Alisson not, Harvey Elliott not, and Federico, I’m not expecting him to be in the squad tomorrow as well,” the head coach said.

When asked for a timescale on Chiesa’s potential return, Slot replied: “That’s always difficult to say because he goes a bit up and down: sometimes he’s there with us, training for a few days, and then he goes out with injury again.

“So, I don’t want to put days or weeks on it because I think we just have to make sure he gets in the best possible shape and don’t put any pressure on him by coming up with dates.”

Slot, who later announced that he does not expect Elliott or Jota to be available prior to the November international break, is yet to make a decision on whether Caoimhin Kelleher or Vitezslav Jaros will start in goal on the south coast.

He said: “It’s something that also goes through my head and I haven’t made my decision yet, so we will see tomorrow. It’s also a decision you take [where] you can include your goalkeeper coach with that.

“But in the end I have to make that decision and I also want to hear how fit Caoimhin is at the moment – he played many games. Let’s wait and see what decision I make tomorrow.”

Regardless, Slot does not anticipate making wholesale changes to his starting XI in the manner of his nine alterations for Liverpool’s third-round victory over West Ham United at Anfield.

He stated: “I don’t think it’s possible to do the same as we did against West Ham for the simple reason that we got some injuries, so we don’t have maybe enough players to change them all if I wanted that.

“We played against Arsenal on Sunday, yesterday was mostly recovery for everyone, so today when they come in – and they have to come in as we speak – we will find out how they all are and then we have to make a decision on who is going to start.

“But I think if you look at our schedule and the amount of times that we have less days to recover compared to our opponent – that’s not [the case] on Saturday because we play Brighton tomorrow, but Brighton played on Saturday and with [Bayer] Leverkusen it’s the same, they play Friday, we play Saturday – it might be a moment for us to also see some other players.

“But, like I said, I first have to know how fit everybody is.”

Wataru Endo is, however, in line to start at Amex Stadium, with Slot adding: “I think Wata is one of the players that might be in the line-up because the season is going to be so long and we will need him during the season. Therefore, once in a while he needs this playing time as well.

“Fortunately he has this playing time with the national team, but it helps if he once in a while gets a game with us again. I really liked him against West Ham and what I admire about him, what I respect about him, is his personality because two times he had to come in five minutes before the end and in my managerial career I sometimes have seen that players who, if they come in five minutes before the end, they come in with a face like this and play like that.

“But every time when we need him – even if it’s for five minutes – he shows up for the team, for his teammates and for himself. Also for that reason he deserves to play tomorrow.”

Slot continued: “I think always the next game is the most important. You try to pick a team, to select a team, that is capable of winning that game and sometimes that means because they’ve played so many games, you change one or two or a few more players.

“How to prepare them for that is not what you do today or tomorrow, that’s mostly what you’ve done already in pre-season and [in] all the weeks leading up to this schedule. Those are the weeks you try to prepare them for these weeks – and you do this by training sessions, of course.”

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