Arne Slot faces the first short turnaround of his Liverpool career as the Reds travel to Italy to play AC Milan in the Champions League.
Liverpool are back at Europe’s top table after a year’s hiatus, and up first is a trip to San Siro where they play a Milan side coming off the back of a 4-0 win against Venezia.
The Reds, of course, had a bumpier build-up, losing 1-0 at Anfield to Nottingham Forest, but a game three days later provides the perfect chance to prove the loss was just a blip.
This being Liverpool’s second game of seven in 22 days, Slot is likely to rotate. However, as we saw against Forest, it is not something he is overly keen on at this stage of his Liverpool career.
Here’s how the Reds could line up against AC Milan.
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Liverpool’s XI vs. AC Milan
With Slot’s reign still in its infancy, it is difficult to predict how he will pick his teams when Liverpool’s fixtures begin to stack up.
We can, though, take some hints from the substitutions we saw against Forest, as those who were withdrawn early are more likely to start in Milan.
Here is one way Liverpool could line up:
This is how Liverpool would start:
Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Konate, Van Dijk, Tsimikas; Gravenberch, Szoboszlai, Mac Allister; Salah, Jota, Diaz
While it is apparent that Slot isn’t a huge fan of rotation at this moment in time, he may be forced into changes for this game.
Seven of his starting XI at the weekend had played maximum minutes for their national team over the international break, so we could see a couple of those men drop out in this scenario.
- Curtis Jones gets his first start since returning from injury, as Dominik Szoboszlai drops out having played the full 90 minutes against Forest
- Conor Bradley‘s regular minutes from the bench serve him well as he comes in with full match sharpness
- Darwin Nunez plays through the middle as Liverpool seek to keep Jota fit this season
Here’s how this alternate team would look:
Alisson; Bradley, Quansah, Van Dijk, Robertson; Gravenberch, Mac Allister, Jones; Salah, Nunez, Diaz
This season will be a learning curve for Slot and his team which will require some patience.
That shouldn’t mean we can’t ask for success this year, though, and a win away at AC Milan, to go with victory at Old Trafford, would be a real marker of Liverpool’s potential.
