BIZARRE Arne Slot decision heaps incredible pressure on Liverpool star

Arne Slot made a bizarre decision and now there's a lot of pressure piled on one Liverpool star. He hasn't handled it well before.

Liverpool have finally found some form, unbeaten in five and winning back-to-back games. Difficult games, too - a win at Inter before beating Brighton 2-0 at home.

That's been driven by a change in formation. Arne Slot shifted from his 4-2-3-1 into a 4-4-2 diamond, albeit a particularly flexible version of it.

It's a move that packs the middle of the pitch, ditching wingers in favour of a bit more freedom through the middle. That puts the width in the hands of the full-backs, of course, which is a controversial move given Jeremie Frimpong is out.

In fact, we saw Slot pick Joe Gomez at right-back several times despite the lack of a right-winger. That includes against Inter - a bizarre decision that now piles pressure on a Liverpool star.

Conor Bradley under pressure

Was Gomez playing against Inter responsible for him getting injured against Brighton? Maybe, maybe not. All we can say for sure is that Slot took a risk with a player who doesn't have a good injury record.

Because there was little to no need to play Gomez against Inter. Conor Bradley was available and, importantly, suspended for the following game against Brighton.

It forced Gomez to play the matches back-to-back and again, it's not clear why that decision was made. He was always going to struggle to do that, having missed a lot of this season with fitness issues.

And so now Bradley is really the only right-back. Certainly the only natural one and even make-shift-option Dominik Szoboszlai is now injured.

Bradley, then, must play. That's not a position he's usually thrived in, given his own injury record - Bradley has never started regularly.

Now, maybe Gomez and Szoboszlai are both back to face Tottenham Hotspur next weekend. Liverpool are lucky in that regard, knowing they have a week off just as players go down.

But it sounds as though the pair may be out until the end of the month at least. That piles the pressure on Bradley to remain fit and perform.

Would it have been avoided if Gomez had started the Inter game on the bench? Perhaps. It's certainly a bizarre decision in hindsight to needlessly start him in back-to-back games.

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