Arne Slot has opened up on the competition for places in the Liverpool forward line this season.
Mohamed Salah, Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo have all started the season in strong form, while Darwin Nunez and Diogo Jota are battling to feature at centre-forward.
Nunez failed to take the most of his chance against Bologna in midweek and has scored just once in seven appearances across all competitions.
Jota could return to the starting side against Crystal Palace this weekend and Slot has said it is important the Reds have different profiles of players to ensure their attack is versatile.
“I think it’s a challenge we as a staff have to find the best out of individuals. We try to find different ways of positioning Darwin [Nunez] to Diogo [Jota] because they are not the same players, they are teammates,” Slot said at his pre-match press conference.
“It’s what I have to do as a manager and also what we are doing. He [Nunez] didn’t score against Bologna because he was offside. When we bring him the chances he can score. But, unfortunately, we couldn’t give him in the positions that we want to be.
“Even Diogo didn’t have [many chances]. He’s scored twice against West Ham at the 10 position. It is something to look at, for us – to bring our striker in different positions to score.”
Slot talks down Liverpool chance to extend lead
Liverpool can move four points clear at the top of the Premier League table with a win against Crystal Palace in Saturday’s early kick-off. Slot talked down the importance of playing before the club’s title rivals and said his sole focus is on a positive performance against Palace.
“You always look at the first one [match] and that’s Crystal Palace and they’ve already shown how tough of an opponent they are against the big teams like [Manchester] United and Chelsea in both situations, they got a result so that’s the first game and that is why it’s the most important one and a difficult one for us, 12:30 kick-off after playing Wednesday evening, late in the Champions League, facing a team that had the whole week to prepare but that is part of working at a top club that we face those teams and we have to be ready for those teams and that’s what we are [going to do] tomorrow.
“I don’t look at it, at this point, as one point, two point, three points, it’s after the weekend, then it is interesting to look at the league table and not after the game we have played.”
