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Arne Slot was forced into an early substitution against Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League, with Jeremie Frimpong limping off with what appeared to be a hamstring issue.
Conor Bradley, who started the game on the bench as one of five players to drop out of the side that lost to Manchester United at the weekend, was introduced in the first half when Frimpong when down.
Arne Slot already has Alisson Becker missing from his team at the moment with a hamstring issue. Frimpong suffered something similar earlier in the campaign having arrived from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer.
Slot explained to TNT Sports before kick-off why he had made the swaps in his starting XI.
"The first answer is always yes (it was a difficult decision to make)," Slot admitted. "But that is also to do with Mo and all the players I have.
"Every time I select a team, it’s always difficult because I have so many good players. That’s also the reason why I use these players. I liked the way we ended the game against Manchester United. Mainly the second half. Created a lot of chances.
"And Ryan is out, so that means we have to restructure our midfield a little bit as well — defensively and offensively. So all together with the way Frankfurt usually plays, we decided to start like this.
"But as always, I have players who start the game and I have players who can impact the game off the bench, and that is (the case) today as well."
On playing Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike together as a front two, Slot added: "What we need to try again today is create as many chances as we did the last few weeks.
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"Then it is very helpful that we have two players in the team who can score a goal.
"We are hoping and expecting Jeremie to create something for these two from the right and Cody Gakpo trying to do the same from the left, with Wirtz's creativity in and around our two number nines.
"They can play together, they showed it against Manchester United — although that was in the second half. It just means our midfield will be structured a little differently."
Liverpool is back in Premier League action at the weekend against Brentford in West London. By then, it will hope that Ryan Gravenberch, who missed the Frankfurt game entirely, is back available again.
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