‘Going to be tight ‘ – Arne Slot sweating on fitness of Liverpool duo ahead of Community Shield | OneFootball

Arne Slot is uncertain whether two members of his Liverpool squad will be available for the Community Shield at Wembley next Sunday.

The Dutchman gave a runout to virtually all of his first-team players – along with a few academy starlets – in the double header against Athletic Bilbao at Anfield on Monday, although four familiar names weren’t involved in either match.

Conor Bradley and Joe Gomez were sidelined with minor injuries, while Virgil van Dijk missed out due to illness and Alisson Becker was also absent, having left the Reds’ pre-season tour of Asia to attend to a personal matter in his native Brazil.

Slot provides Liverpool injury update ahead of Community Shield

As he addressed the media ahead of the first match against the LaLiga side yesterday, Slot was asked if any of those four players are at risk of missing the Community Shield next weekend or the Premier League opener against Bournemouth the following Friday.

The Liverpool head coach replied (via liverpoolfc.com): “Virgil normally not. Joe Gomez and Conor Bradley, it’s going to be tight. Alisson will be back in time as well.”

(Photo by Kenta Harada/Getty Images)

Slot must surely be alarmed about Liverpool’s defensive depth

The dearth of defensive options forced Slot into some unorthodox selections, with the centre-back partnership for Monday’s first match comprising left-back Andy Robertson and teenage midfielder Trey Nyoni, and another midfielder in Wataru Endo deputising in defence alongside Ibrahima Konate in the second game.

Pre-season fixtures provide the perfect setting for tactical experimentation, but with our first competitive outing of 2025/26 coming up on Sunday and the Premier League starting five days later, defensive depth is a growing concern with less than a month remaining in the transfer window.

Liverpool would still be able to field a strong back four of Jeremie Frimpong, Van Dijk, Konate and Robertson against Crystal Palace if the captain recovers from illness and there are no further injuries, although Ian Doyle spotted a suspected hamstring tweak for Nyoni at Anfield yesterday.

As exciting as the acquisition of Alexander Isak would be if it comes off, Richard Hughes’ primary focus for the rest of this month must surely be to sign another centre-back. Even when Gomez is available, to go into the autumn with only three senior options in that part of the squad is playing with fire.

Fingers crossed that Slot will have a clean bill of health for the Community Shield and that a lack of defensive depth won’t be a recurring theme throughout the 2025/26 campaign, like it had been the last time we were defending Premier League champions five years ago.