Liverpool's board are under increasing pressure amid Arne Slot's porous run of form and Sir Alex Ferguson has made clear what he'd do if tasked with deciding the manager's future

Ibrahima Konate and Virgil Van Dijk are the senior central defenders in the squad, while Joe Gomez has recovered from injury to be available in recent games. But he has been forced to deputise at right-back, with Conor Bradley and Jeremie Frimpong both injured.

Mohamed Salah was benched for the second straight game whilst Federico Chiesa was excluded from Liverpool's Champions League squad, with Arne Slot revealing both players expressed disappointment

Arne Slot opted against reintroducing Salah back into his starting XI in the week, having given the Egyptian no minutes in the 2–0 victory at West Ham on Sunday. Many wondered whether Liverpool’s recent stopping of the rot would prove to be a false dawn, or the start of a Reds resurgence, with the Hammers so meek in defeat on home soil.

Liverpool had lost three matches in a row in all competitions, each by a three-goal margin, before Sunday's 2-0 win over West Ham.

And having avoided a 10th loss in 13 at the London Stadium, Slot has opted to stick by the winning formula and leave Salah among the substitutes for Liverpool’s midweek visit of Sunderland. It’s the first time Salah has been benched in back-to-back league games since joining Liverpool in the summer of 2017.