Arne Slot is making a MISTAKE by calling Liverpool star a last resort

Arne Slot is making a mistake with how he's handling one Liverpool player. He can't be a last resort.

Arne Slot hasn't had it easy this season. The squad built for him in the summer hasn't worked under his leadership and Liverpool are comfortably out of the title race already.

Injuries certainly haven't helped, though. Slot lost Giovanni Leoni to a season-ending knee injury almost immediately. Alexander Isak has since fractured his leg and will miss a while.

Now Conor Bradley has also suffered a season-ending knee injury. It limits options drastically, particularly as two of those players are defenders. Poor Joe Gomez is now required to cover two roles - and that's easier said than done, especially when he's battled his own fitness concerns this season.

There are other options to replace Bradley in the squad, though. One of them, Calvin Ramsay, has been promoted into the first-team setup.

Only, we think Slot is making a big mistake with how he's handling him.

Calvin Ramsay’s place in this squad

Ramsay is a very talented right-back who’s own injury issues have plagued his time at Liverpool. But he was once brought in as the future in the role.

What he needs are opportunities to show what he can do - but it’s not clear that he’s going to get them. Slot discussed Ramsay in his press conference on Friday and repeatedly told reporters that he had better options.

“I still think I have better options to play,” said Slot. “But at the moment I am running out of options. He has shown in the one game he played against [Crystal] Palace, and in the moments he trained with us, that he is good enough to be in and around our players.

“Sometimes you have to wait to show this to the rest of the world. But at this moment in time, I have, in my opinion, still better options."

It’s a mistake. If only because those options include Gomez, a centre-back who cannot offer the same width that Liverpool need in their new narrower setup, and midfielders.

Those midfielders are the reason the setup is narrower. Slot has packed the midfield in an effort to solidify the team, sometimes playing five or six at a time.

How does he expect to do that if Dominik Szoboszlai or Curtis Jones are at right-back?

We do expect Jeremie Frimpong to revert to the role with Mo Salah returning but he’s had fitness concerns this season, too. Getting Ramsay some games and developing him further in the role boost squad depth all over the pitch, then, as it eases the pressure on Frimpong and keeps the midfield well-stocked.

Ignoring him is taking another unnecessary risk.

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