Arne Slot says £40m star is 'not used' to Liverpool demands after Chelsea loss

Liverpool boss Arne Slot (Picture: Getty)

Arne Slot said he is still having to manage Milos Kerkez ’s minutes after the Liverpool defender was brought off early during their 2-1 defeat against Chelsea.

Kerkez has endured a tricky start to life at Liverpool since arriving from Bournemouth for £40million this summer.

The Hungarian international has started all of Liverpool’s seven Premier League fixtures so far this campaign, but has not quite managed to replicate the form he showed under Andoni Iraola last season.

The left-back faced a difficult task up against Pedro Neto at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, and was eventually withdrawn after 55 minutes to be replaced by the experienced Andy Robertson .

And speaking after the game, Slot confirmed that he looked to protect the defender after a tiring spell that has seen Kerkez play three times in the last seven days.

‘Milos was more and more tired – he played 90 minutes in two games and now for the third game in a week, which he’s not used to when he played at Bournemouth’ Slot told Sky Sports.

‘You could feel and see it got more and more difficult to keep going and their wingers are a threat so we decided to make a change over there.’

Kerez struggled again at Stamford Bridge (Picture: Getty)

Slot’s side are simply not clicking into gear (Picture: Getty)

Fellow full-back Conor Bradley was brought off at half-time to be replaced by Florian Wirtz, with Slot noting: ‘Most of the times I have to change the fullbacks after being on yellow. Today Conor Bradley was on a yellow card.

‘He made a second foul and players were asking for a yellow again, so you wonder if it’s smart to keep him on the pitch. We decided not to and we needed Florian to come into the game.’

Kerkez was withdrawn early at Stamford Bridge (Picture: Getty)

Elsewhere in defence, there was concern for Ibrahima Konate, who limped off early in the second half to be replaced by Curtis Jones.

Asked about the Frenchman’s condition, Slot added: ‘I don’t know if it’s a big injury but I know he limped a little bit. He said he felt his quad.

‘For me, alarm bells go on because you never know if with another sprint how that’s going to go.

‘It was already a substitution I had in mind for a little bit later because the right centre-back had a lot of ball possession. We needed to create from that position and we all know that Ryan is quite good there.