Arne Slot confirms Liverpool injury blow as Reds boss forced to change his plans

Curtis Jones was forced off through injury during Liverpool's win over Lille with Arne Slot having to rejig his plans for the Reds.

The games continue to come thick and fast for the Premier League leaders but they maintained their spot at the top of the Champions League standings with a win over the French side. Jones started in midfield alongside Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai.

But the academy graduate saw his night cut short by injury, after assisting Mohamed Salah's opening goal, and had to be hauled off at half-time. The plan had been to take off Gravenberch and Szoboszlai, but Jones' forced withdrawal changed the dynamics and forced Slot into a rethink.

He said: “Yeah, the idea was to take Dom off and Ryan off at half time, but Curtis unfortunately couldn’t continue so that’s why Dom stayed a bit longer. There was a moment in the game. What he felt, he said, ‘Let’s play for five more minutes and then let’s see how it is.’ But he said he had to come out at half-time.

“We wanted to win this game but we were also aware of the fact that we had to manage the loads. We would have been really, really, really unlucky if we would have lost twice and still not been in the top eight. As we know now, I think 18 points would have been enough to play top eight. But with 21 there is no discussion.”

Harvey Elliott was then introduced at the break and it was the midfielder who came up with the winning goal at Anfield. Despite being down to 10 men Lille equalised through Jonathan David, but that parity didn't last long with Elliott scoring just five minutes later.

That strike ensured the Reds remain the only team in the Champions League to have a 100 percent record. They've won all seven games and, as things stand, as poised to get a favourable draw come the knockouts.

Slot has had to deal with several absentees, including Joe Gomez, who is missing from the backline. Conor Bradley has spent time out but returned to the starting XI, replacing Trent Alexander-Arnold at right-back, and he came off late on, but it was simply precautionary.

He said: “Conor, the idea was to play 90, but in the end you could see it got more tough and tough and tough for him in terms of loads. So you don’t want to take the risk of him getting injured in the last few minutes like what happened against Real Madrid.”

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