Liverpool drop five early team news hints for Brighton as Arne Slot makes major decision

Liverpool have hinted at five players who will feature against Brighton and Hove Albion at Anfield this weekend.

Three days after the two teams played on the south coast in their League Cup fourth-round tie, they are back in action as the Premier League returns. Arne Slot made eight changes to the line-up that started the 2-2 draw against Arsenal, and Brighton head coach Fabian Huerzeler made the same number of alterations.

As such, several more are expected for the league meeting, especially given the relatively short turnaround between both games. Speaking to the media during a Friday morning press conference, Slot acknowledged as much. "Both teams didn't start with the team they will start with on Saturday," he said.

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Now, the club have hinted at who some of those coming back into the team could be. A matchday graphic shared across their official social media channels on Saturday morning prominently features a full-length portrait of Virgil van Dijk.

The club's captain was named on the bench at Brighton but remained unused. Slot instead chose Ibrahima Konate to replace Jarell Quansah in added time but it appears the Liverpool boss could make the major decision to reunite his first-choice partnership for the Premier League encounter.

The matchday image also includes a photo of Mohamed Salah from a match this season at Anfield. The forward started as a substitute on the south coast but featured for the final 20 minutes, with Cody Gakpo making way for him despite being on a hat-trick.

The graphic also features an image of Curtis Jones celebrating his winning goal against Chelsea, with Darwin Nunez and Trent Alexander-Arnold in the shot. Jones played the full 90 minutes against Brighton, while Nunez came on at the same time as Salah, replacing Dominik Szoboszlai.

However, Alexander-Arnold was not involved in the matchday squad and will, as expected, seemingly return to action. It is worth noting that the equivalent matchday graphic for the cup tie featured Luis Diaz, Gakpo and Jones, all of whom started that game.

Alexis Mac Allister also shared a personal matchday image on his Instagram story on Friday night before another reunion with his former club. He notably details the kick-off time in his native Argentina, and those watching from South America will hope the midfielder returns to the starting line-up after only playing the best part of half an hour in midweek.