Sports
Liverpool’s Slot: Last risk I took, Isak got hurt
Arne Slot insisted his Liverpool team selection in the Carabao Cup defeat was about protecting key players, like Alexander Isak, from injury.
Liverpool’s bad run of form extended to a sixth defeat in seven games when Crystal Palace ran out 3-0 winners at Anfield on Wednesday.
Slot rotated his starting XI with 10 changes from their most recent Premier League match against Brentford. Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk were notably absent from the squad.
“Everybody can have [an] opinion about it, but with the squad we have — maybe 15, 16 first-team players available — this is the choice I’ve made,” Slot told Sky Sports.
“It’s not of Liverpool’s standards to lose five out of six, or six out of seven.
“Last time we played Southampton here in the League Cup, Giovanni Leoni got injured. We don’t have such a big squad as people might tell. There was so much focus on the amount of money we spent.
“People all of a sudden think we have 25 players available. But we mainly have 20 players then we have four injuries.
“I only have one right full-back, Conor Bradley, as an example. Every time I had to play him twice in three days or three times in seven days [last season] I had to take him off with a hamstring injury or something else.
“Are you willing to take that risk with such a big week coming up?
“Last time I played a player that wasn’t fully prepared — we thought he was prepared but it was the first time — Isak, he got injured.
“Last time we played Southampton Leoni was injured and it was a red card for Hugo Ekitike. Those are the things we can’t use with a big week coming up.
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“But there’s always a choice. What if I had played Virgil and [Ibrahima Konate], for example, if one of them got injured people would have said ‘what a stupid choice!’
“And also with [the key players] it was very difficult for us, for our starters to beat Palace because it’s not the first time we lose against them.”
Liverpool play Aston Villa on Saturday in the Premier League at Anfield. They also face Real Madrid and Manchester City before the international break.
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Jamison Hensley
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Marcel Louis-Jacques
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Marcel Louis-Jacques
ESPN
- Marcel Louis-Jacques joined ESPN in 2019 as a beat reporter covering the Buffalo Bills, before switching to the Miami Dolphins in 2021. The former Carolina Panthers beat writer for the Charlotte Observer won the APSE award for breaking news and the South Carolina Press Association award for enterprise writing in 2018.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson returned to action Thursday night after missing two games with a hamstring injury, and his team’s slim playoff chances depended on him returning to his MVP form against the Miami Dolphins.
The Ravens started the season 1-5, and since the first NFL postseason in 1933, only four of 358 teams — which amounts to 1.1% — made the playoffs after starting 1-5 or worse, according to ESPN Research. But the Ravens are hopeful the return of Jackson and a wide-open AFC North will help them become the fifth team to achieve the feat.
Tyler Huntley played in place of Jackson and helped the Ravens beat the Chicago Bears last week.
The Dolphins, meanwhile, also are coming off a win as their victory over the Atlanta Falcons snapped a three-game losing streak.
Stay with this file as Ravens reporter Jamison Hensley and Dolphins reporter Marcel Louis-Jacques provide all of the highlights and key plays Thursday night.
The 20-year-old native of Serbia, drafted 12th overall in 2024, began getting treatment following a biopsy earlier this month.
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Hirving “Chucky” Lozano‘s exile from San Diego FC‘s squad will end this weekend but the Mexico forward will not go straight back into the club’s starting lineup, head coach Mikey Varas said Thursday.
Lozano has been absent from San Diego’s last two matches, including its first-ever playoff game against the Portland Timbers on Sunday, after an internal incident.
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While the club has not commented on the exact nature of the offense, The Athletic reported that Lozano was involved in a verbal altercation earlier this month after being substituted at halftime against the Houston Dynamo.
Following the report, Lozano issued an apology on social media.
Varas said after a 2-1 home victory in Game 1 of the first-round series with Portland that Lozano was in line for a return as long as continued to show commitment in training. And the coach has now confirmed plans to reintegrate the former PSV Eindhoven and Napoli winger for Game 2 in Portland on Sunday.
“Based on everything that we’ve seen, he’ll be traveling to Portland and he’ll be coming off the bench for us,” Varas told reporters.
Asked what Lozano had shown in training, Varas responded: “Just that he wants to be a part of the group, it’s the most important thing, [showing] through your actions that you want to be part of the group.”
Lozano was signed as San Diego’s first designated player last year and is the fifth-highest earner in MLS, with annual guaranteed compensation of $6 million.
In his first year in MLS, Lozano has nine goals and 10 assists across 27 appearances as San Diego took the top seed in the Western Conference. Varas, a finalist for Coach of the Year, helped San Diego set MLS records for the most wins (19) and most points (63) recorded by an expansion team.
Sunday will mark the third straight weekend that San Diego and Portland have met after also facing off on the final day of the regular season. San Diego has beaten Portland in all three of their matches this season.
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