Slot Must Bench ‘Outrageous’ Star & Start £120k-p/w Liverpool Ace v Chelsea

Liverpool return to Premier League action this weekend following the second international break of the 2024/25 season, and head coach Arne Slot must make one key selection decision and start Cody Gakpo in order to avoid a repeat of last month’s bitter defeat at home to Nottingham Forest.

The Reds have had a strong start to the campaign, and they sit top of the standings after seven games. This weekend, they will hope to maintain their place at the league summit as they host Chelsea at Anfield on Sunday afternoon.

In this fixture last season, under Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool secured a comfortable 4-1 victory under the lights. Diogo Jota, Dominik Szoboszlai, Luis Diaz and Conor Bradley were among the goals for the home side, while Christopher Nkunku scored a late consolation for Chelsea.

Gakpo is fresh and deserves to start

Slot’s side have suffered just one defeat in 10 games across all competitions this season. That loss came at home to Nottingham Forest in the Premier League after the September international break, as the Reds struggled to take their own chances, and were cruelly undone by a late strike from Callum Hudson-Odoi.

Interestingly, the Liverpool head coach started the same 11 players against Forest that started the 3-0 victory away at Manchester United before the break. Luis Diaz and Alexis Mac Allister both featured in a World Cup qualifier against each other in Colombia four days before the Forest Game, while Alisson played a full game for Brazil in Paraguay three days before.

Cody Gakpo 2024/25 stats for Liverpool (all competitions)
Stat:
Appearances	10
Goals	2
Assists	2
Minutes played	383′

The fixture against Chelsea is slightly different given it’s on Sunday and will be under the lights, but Slot should learn from what happened against Forest and decide based on freshness as opposed to consistency. Gakpo, who earns £120k per week at Liverpool, played 65 minutes for the Netherlands on Monday night in Germany, while Diaz played 76 minutes for Colombia against Chile on Tuesday before travelling the 10 plus hours back to England.

Gakpo has started just one Premier League game this season, which was the narrow 1-0 victory against Crystal Palace before the international break. He registered the assist for Jota’s winning goal in the ninth minute, and he showed just how threatening he can be on the left flank. Rotation will be key in Liverpool’s upcoming run of difficult fixtures, and Slot must start strong by selecting a much fresher Gakpo against Chelsea. Even if it means benching Diaz, whose ability has been described as ‘outrageous’ by teammates, for such a crucial game.

Injuries could prompt further rotation

A handful of players are a doubt for Sunday’s clash

Some rotation will likely be enforced against Chelsea, as Slot revealed in his press conference on Friday that late decisions will need to be made on a handful of players. Alisson is the long-term absentee following his hamstring injury against Palace before the break, but the Reds have a strong deputy in Caoimhin Kelleher.

However, there are also question marks over others in the squad following the international break. Mac Allister missed one of Argentina’s fixtures over the last week, so he will need to be assessed.

Left back Kostas Tsimikas was also named as a doubt after he missed Greece’s victory over England. Wataru Endo suffered with illness while away with Japan, which meant he missed their most recent game against Australia, so he is another midfield doubt.

Beyond Chelsea, Liverpool’s upcoming run of games includes a visit to RB Leipzig, a trip to the Emirates to face Arsenal, back-to-back games against Brighton, and they host Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League.

Stats courtesy of transfermarkt (correct as of 19/10/24)