Paul Merson has advised Arne Slot to omit two players in particular from the Liverpool starting line-up for the Premier League clash against Brighton on Saturday.
The team will almost certainly be much different from that which started against the Seagulls in the Carabao Cup in midweek, but while the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Ryan Gravenberch, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mo Salah will inevitably come back in, the Reds boss could face a couple of tough calls elsewhere.
Merson on Slot’s selection dilemmas
Writing in his Premier League predictions column for Sportskeeda, the pundit believes that the LFC head coach will have difficult decisions to make in midfield and on the left wing.
Merson stated: “Liverpool have a lot of selection headaches. It’s not a bad problem to have, so I’m sure Slot will handle it well.
“It’s difficult to pick between Dominik Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones in midfield for the game against Brighton. I would personally go with Szoboszlai but Jones was terrific against Chelsea and Slot may decide to pick him.
“Cody Gakpo and Luis Diaz also scored goals during the cup game. Despite the fact that Gakpo is playing well, I feel Diaz offers just a little more on the left with his pace and I’d pick him as part of the front three here.”
Two big calls for Slot to make
Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister look nailed-on to start in midfield tomorrow, but Slot could indeed have a tough call to make between Szoboszlai and Jones.
As Merson rightly states, Liverpool’s number 17 was outstanding in the recent win over Chelsea. However, with him playing the full 90 minutes in midweek and the Hungarian coming off with 20 minutes to go, the ex-RB Leipzig man might just get the nod at Anfield on Saturday.
As for who starts on the left flank, that seems like a toss of a coin. Diaz has locked down that berth for the most part this season and has repaid the head coach’s faith with six goals so far this term, but Gakpo would be extremely difficult to drop after he scored twice against Brighton in on Wednesday.
Even with the Reds being hit by a few injuries, it still attests to their squad depth that Slot could leave out players of huge quality tomorrow without necessarily weakening the starting line-up. His record since taking charge of LFC means that we’ve full faith in him to make the right calls when it comes to picking his team this weekend.
