Arne Slot has revealed that Jeremie Frimpong was withdrawn from Liverpool’s opening day win over Bournemouth with a sore hamstring.
The full-back, who joined Liverpool from Bayer Leverkusen this summer, has enjoyed a fast start to life on Merseyside, scoring in the Community Shield before making his Premier League debut on Friday.
He was withdrawn with half an hour left to play, though, leaving the pitch alongside Milos Kerkez. The pair were replaced by Joe Gomez and Andy Robertson.
After their withdrawal, Antoine Semenyo hit a brace of counter-attack goals to level the match at two apiece, before Federico Chiesa and Mohamed Salah scored late to secure the win.
Speaking post-match, Slot revealed his reason for removing both full-backs.
“It wasn’t out of luxury,” the Dutchman explained. “Jeremie Frimpong felt his hamstring at half-time and made a lot of sprints.
“He was doing quite well, but our other full-back, Conor Bradley, is already injured with a hamstring injury, so you don’t to take the risk of losing another full-back.
“You could argue, why don’t you play Joe Gomez there, but he only had two sessions in pre-season and could only play half an hour, so we started with Wataru Endo and our left full-back Milos Kerkez.”
Bradley is expected to return from his injury by the end of the month.
Kerkez made an impression in his Premier League appearance for Liverpool, flying into some crunching tackles before being booked shortly before half-time.
Lining up opposite the fleet-footed Semenyo, Slot said he wanted to make sure the Hungarian would not see red.
He continued: “[Kerkez] is a player I think the fans like because every duel he goes all in.
“But when you have a yellow card already and play Semenyo, that is a risk.
“And if you have Robertson as a back-up, that was the reason for those two.”
