New MASSIVE headache for Arne Slot before Manchester City

Liverpool take on Manchester City in their next fixture, fresh after beating Real Madrid. But Arne Slot has a massive headache he must deal with.

Liverpool have back-to-back wins with back-to-back clean sheets. They've come against great teams, too, with Aston Villa and Real Madrid both in good form.

The win on Tuesday against Real Madrid was arguably the best performance of the entire year, quite honestly. Liverpool were in control for virtually the 90 minutes and only heroics from Thibaut Courtois kept the scoreline down.

This was the Reds at their best and now there's a lot of confidence going into Sunday. The team travels to Manchester to take on Manchester City in one of the biggest games of any season.

But Liverpool are looking to completely reverse the narrative around them. They've moved out of a period of just two wins in eight and four consecutive Premier League defeats and into one where they've proven their ability to beat anyone.

Beating City as well, though? Liverpool would once again look like proper contenders for the biggest trophies. However, Slot does have a new headache to contend with.

Arne Slot's headache

Slot was brave in Liverpool's win over Aston Villa. He made only one substitution across the 90 minutes - taking off Hugo Ekitike for Florian Wirtz.

That was essentially forced, too, as Ekitike is Liverpool's only fit forward and couldn't be risked ahead of Real Madrid. Slot was willing to risk everyone else, though.

It meant the boss asked the majority of his team to play two sets of 90 minutes. The only change against Madrid, after all, was to bring Wirtz in for Gakpo.

And the match then followed a similar pattern. There were no subs until the 78th minute, with Ekitike coming off for Gakpo and Alexis Mac Allister for Curtis Jones.

The latter sub was an absolute necessity as Mac Allister was one of only two players in the XI who had also played the Carabao Cup defeat to Crystal Palace a few days before the Villa win. The other, Andy Robertson, was removed after 88 minutes.

That's an awful lot of football. Robertson and Mac Allister, in particular, have played two and a half full games over the last week or so.

Now most of the team will have played 180 minutes in the week prior to facing Man City. It's a lot to ask of midfielders like Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai. It's an awful lot to ask of Conor Bradley, who has never really played this much football before. Not without picking up an injury, anyway.

But this is the headache Slot now faces. He opted for consistency rather than rotation in the last two fixtures and now he's got to ask virtually the entire team to go again.

A third win would be truly incredible and given this extra problem, a sign that Liverpool are firmly a team to be feared.

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