Newcastle were interested in signing the England international defender in June, if Liverpool had bought Anthony Gordon, while the versatile Gomez did not even make the bench for last week’s 2-0 win over Ipswich.
Slot picked Virgil van Dijk and Jarell Quansah as his centre-backs, with Ibrahima Konate as a substitute, while Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold were his chosen full-backs, with Conor Bradley and Kostas Tsimikas preferred as their back-ups.
Gomez is Liverpool’s longest-serving player, after joining from Charlton in 2015, and Slot thinks the 27-year-old will stay as he explained his omission last week was in part because he had less of a pre-season than some other players.
“At this moment I am expecting everyone to be here but you are maybe even longer in football than I am,” he said. “Everything can change.”
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Slot feels Gomez has been unaffected by the talk of a transfer and by being omitted. “It [his head] has been in the right place for three weeks,” he added. “He has worked really hard since he came back. He didn’t play a lot in the Euros and when he came back in the first sessions he couldn’t train the whole session so we had to manage his load and that was also a bit a reason why he wasn’t in the team on Saturday.
“But this week he had a good week in terms of load and how much he could do with the team. He is one of the players that I see new things from and learn things what I see from him, also combined with other players. It has been a good week for him and us until now.”
Slot believes Ryan Gravenberch has a lot to prove as a defensive midfielder after being given the first chance to become Liverpool’s No 6 this season.
They had hoped to sign Spain international Martin Zubimendi, who instead decided to stay at Real Sociedad, while Wataru Endo struggled in pre-season and Slot turned to Gravenberch.
“He brings certain qualities which we like but he only [has played] three games and he did well, only one of them was a game that matters in terms of the Premier League so he has a lot to prove in the Premier League. It is always about what the team around him do so if all the other 10 at Ipswich play s**t I don’t think Ryan can play a good game.”
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