Arne Slot has called on his Liverpool stars to not get carried away with being top of the Premier League table, especially noting the Reds’ tricky run of fixtures coming up after the international break.
Liverpool travel to Crystal Palace on Saturday knowing a win will keep them at the summit for at least two more weeks – but Slot’s men have not played anyone in the top nine of the Premier League yet and tougher tests lie ahead.
After the break, they host Chelsea before trips to title rivals Arsenal, RB Leipzig and Brighton in the Carabao Cup. Liverpool then host the Seagulls in the league before home matches against Bayer Leverkusen and Aston Villa.
And Slot is confident his troops will not be distracted by the league table in that next seven-game run between international breaks, with Real Madrid and Manchester City also heading to Anfield in the next two months.
Asked if they will get carried away, the Dutchman said: ‘No, we are Liverpool. Players here are used to being on top of the table. It would be very weird if a player at Liverpool all of sudden had his head in the clouds. So no.
Arne Slot insists Liverpool have their feet firmly on the ground after racing to the top of the Premier League table
‘If we do not play well tomorrow, people will come up with that instead of saying Palace played well or we did things wrong. But I do not see this and it definitely would not be normal. First of all, these players are experienced enough to understand the league table.
‘Second of all, Virgil, Ali, Trent, Robbo, Mo, won the league and Champions League here – so for them it is a nice thing to be top of the table but I am not expecting them to watch their mobile every second of the day to see if they are at the top of the table.’
Liverpool are expecting to be without new signing Federico Chiesa for the trip to Palace – the Italian has missed training for most of this week – and midfielder Harvey Elliott is still ruled out after fracturing his foot in the last international break.
On Chiesa, Slot added: ‘Wait and see, he didn’t train for the last two days. If he can today, I have a decision to make. First of all we have to wait and see if he can even train.’