‘I have better options’ – Arne Slot bizarrely undermines Liverpool ace Klopp dubbed ‘exceptional’
Arne Slot made a rather curious comment about one Liverpool player when speaking to the media on Friday morning.
The Reds were dealt a major blow last weekend when it was confirmed that Conor Bradley would miss the rest of the season after suffering a serious knee injury in the 0-0 draw at Arsenal eight days ago.
That still leaves two natural senior right-backs in the squad in Jeremie Frimpong and Calvin Ramsay, although the latter has only played once for the first team in the current campaign, with the head coach frequently preferring to utilise midfielders Dominik Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones at full-back instead.
Slot strangely undermines Calvin Ramsay in public
Slot held his pre-match press conference this morning ahead of Liverpool’s fixture against Burnley on Saturday, and he indicated that Ramsay still has more to prove before being considered for selection.
The Dutchman said (via Liverpool Echo): “When someone is really unlucky with injuries, there is always someone who benefits, and Calvin is one of those. I still think I have better options to play but I am running out of them.
“He has shown in that one game, against Crystal Palace in the Carabao Cup, that he is good enough to be in and around our players. Then you have to wait for your chance. Sometimes you have to wait for a chance to show this to the rest of the world, but at this moment I have, in my opinion, better options.”
Slot shouldn’t be so dismissive of his players in public
What must Ramsay be thinking after hearing Slot undermining him like this in public?
We don’t doubt that the head coach has told that to the 22-year-old’s face long before now, and the proof of the Dutchman’s thinking is laid bare by the sparsity of senior appearances for the Scottish right-back, who Jurgen Klopp previously dubbed an ‘exceptional‘ talent.
However, it seems strange and unnecessary from the Liverpool boss to be so openly dismissive of a player’s first-team capabilities, especially when he was rightly complimentary of the defender’s performance in the aforementioned Carabao Cup defeat to Palace.
Having made just three senior appearances at Anfield, Ramsay is clearly quite inexperienced at the highest level, but every player in world football has to start somewhere, and Slot isn’t in a position to be disregarding natural right-back options now that Bradley is out for the season.
The Scot will know that he’s low in the head coach’s pecking order for now, but he just needs to keep doing his utmost in training to leave the boss with no choice but to take his case for inclusion seriously if (heaven forbid) Frimpong were also to become unavailable.
You can watch Slot’s full post-Barnsley press conference below, via Empire of the Kop on YouTube:
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