02/10/2025

THURSDAY | OCT 2, 2025

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muscle problem as he made a save from Victor Osimhen and Slot was quick to rule him out of Saturday’s (Sunday 12.30 Malaysian time) trip to Chelsea. “It’s never positive if you go off like this,” Slot said. “You can be sure he is not playing Saturday.” “When he sprinted back, he felt something. I cannot tell you because I am not a physician but normally when a player sprints back and feels something and goes to the floor and doesn’t come back to the pitch, nine times out of 10 I fear the worst. “And with the worst I mean he cannot continue and that is what happened with Alisson. He will not be able to play Saturday, 99.9%, I have already said 100%.” Slot is more optimistic about Ekitike but warned the for ward’s problem may be worse than he thinks. “He felt something when he had to reach for the ball,” he added. “Hugo felt something. “And after the game, that’s always the difficult thing with these moments, when players feel like, ‘oh, it’s not too bad,’ but when you just walk around with something differ ent, and when you make a spin, you have to shoot another one from the target. “He said he couldn’t continue, so we had to take him off. Let’s see how he responds.” – The Independent/ Express Newspapers to reach for the ball, he added.

“The mar gins are small

Galatasaray’s Lucas Torreira (left) and

manager Arne Slot and captain Virgil van Dijk have urged for calm

and they were last season. For the sec ond time in a row we are on the wrong side.” Reds captain van

Liverpool’s Curtis Jones fight for the ball in Istanbul yesterday. – AFPPIC

and patience as the team continues to gel after the Reds’ loss to Galatasaray in the Champions League. The Reds produced a disjointed

Dijk said that he is “very confident” his team will return to the levels last season, adding that Liverpool “had a good start this year in terms of points tally”.

performance in both attack and defence as they slipped to consecu tive losses for just the second time in Slot’s tenure, with the defeat meaning they sit 16th in the league

“I think we have showed it (authority) already in many games this season but we haven’t shown it for the full 90 minutes yet unfortunately,”

Disjointed Reds Van Dijk insists Liverpool ‘shouldn’t panic’ despite Galatasaray defeat

he stressed. “There shouldn’t be panic, but improvement is needed.” Slot suggested he had no regrets about benching Mohamed Salah after yesterday defeat as the Reds managed only four shots on target despite dominating the ball in Istanbul. “There are a few players for us that missed pre-season so you cannot play them every game. Well, you can, but then it becomes a risk of players getting injured. “It’s not always that I want to rotate but I sometimes just need to because a player is not ready to play three times 90 minutes in seven or eight days.” Liverpool face some new injury concerns after Ekitike and Alisson were substituted at Rams Park, with Slot seemingly ruling the Brazilian goalkeeper out of the weekend’s fix ture. The Brazilian suffered a suspected “Th h ld’b i b

phase table with several clubs still to play a second match. Both Slot and van Dijk were ques tioned on whether the team was showing the same level of composure and authority as last season, with the manager suggesting that he thinks his side are “not so far” away from the level shown in matches last term. “For me I saw a lot [of composure] in the first half, the way we played and controlled the game, got our attackers in promising positions,” Slot said to Amazon Prime. “(But) this is sometimes what the schedule can bring. “From the starting XI there are three or four positions (that are differ ent) and I have to manage minutes. You see today (Hugo) Ekitike and Alisson going off, that’s why we have to rotate a little bit. “In the meantime, we’ve only lost one Champions League game and one Premier League game,” he added. l d h

Galatasaray’s Ismail Jakobs (right) and Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah in action yesterday. – REUTERSPIC

Devan hopeful despite defeat

Where Eagles dare

Mour not ‘fed’ by memories

- Story on page 28

- Story on page 29

- Story on page 31

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