Liverpool were forced to make changes at half-time during the 2-1 win over Lille
Arne Slot has confirmed that Curtis Jones was forced off through injury in Liverpool’s 2-1 victory over Lille. The midfielder set up the opening goal for Mohamed Salah, but was replaced at half-time along with Ryan Gravenberch as Harvey Elliott and Alexis Mac Allister came on in the pair’s place.
Elliott would end up scoring the winner for the Reds as they secured a top two finish in the Champions League league phase and guaranteed their place in the round of 16 with a game to spare.
But while Slot always intended to replace Gravenberch at half-time, the Dutchman admitted that Jones’ injury changed the Liverpool head coach’s original plan as he looked to manage some of his players’ workloads.
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“Yeah, the idea was to take Dom off and Ryan off at half time,” he said. “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.”
Meanwhile, Slot also revealed that Conor Bradley was taken off a precautionary measure in the 86th minute as Liverpool looked to prevent the Northern Ireland international from picking up an injury of his own.
“Conor, the idea was to play 90,” he said. “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.”
