Liverpool face Galatasaray in the first leg of their last-16 tie on Tuesday and Arne Slot must get his starting XI right, having lost 1-0 to the Turkish side earlier in the season
Arne Slot has selection decisions to make(Image: James Gill/Getty Images)
Arne Slot needs no reminding of how difficult Tuesday’s match against Galatasaray can be for Liverpool. The Turkish club were one of two sides to beat Liverpool in the group stage of the Champions League and earned a last-16 tie by beating Juventus in a two-legged play-off.
The 1-0 win in September came courtesy of a Victor Osimhen penalty, due to a stray arm by Dominik Szoboszlai. At the time, Liverpool sat top of the Premier League table, having made a strong start to their title defence, with five wins from six.
But that trip to Istanbul wasn’t a blip, more of a sign of what was to come. It ended up as the second of four straight defeats in succession, with Crystal Palace, Chelsea and Manchester United all claiming damaging victories in September and October as the wheels fell off Slot’s attempt to make it two titles in two seasons at Anfield.
Slot was forced to defend himself in the post-match press conference in Turkey, having rotated his side, left Mohamed Salah on the bench, and played Jeremie Frimpong on the wing ahead of Szoboszlai on the right-hand side. “It is not always that I want to rotate but sometimes I need to because a player is not ready to play three times 90 minutes in seven or eight days,” he explained.
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He also felt that Galatasaray had tweaked their normal playing style to negate his own approach. Nevertheless, Slot’s decision-making that night saw unrest grow in the fanbase – and it only got worse as the inconsistency continued in the final months of 2025.
There are similar themes ahead of Tuesday’s game in Istanbul, with the place of Cody Gakpo in the starting XI under particular scrutiny. The Dutch winger has just one goal in his last 10 games and has seen Rio Ngumoha develop as an alternative for his starting spot.
The 17-year-old came on and made a difference in the 2-1 defeat by Wolves last Tuesday and earned a start in the FA Cup tie against the same opponents on Friday, prompting a plea from club legend Steven Gerrard, who told TNT Sports: “[Slot] has to start Ngumoha now. He has to start him because he’s coming on and he’s doing more in a short cameo in a short space of time than Gakpo’s doing in 65, 70 minutes. He deserves to start now.”
Rio Ngumoha is challenging Cody Gakpo for his place in the side(Image: PETER POWELL / AFP via Getty Images)
However, Slot has already hinted that Ngumoha isn’t likely to be thrown into a match as fierce as Galatasaray away. Having regularly stressed the need for managed minutes and a slowly-but-surely approach, the Dutchman has suggested that calm and experienced heads will be the order of the day in Turkey this time around.
“The whole atmosphere makes it different from any other away game I’ve ever played. Every time we had the ball, the noise, the whistling, is so hard that sometimes you wonder if this could be done by human people,” Slot told Owen Hargreaves for TNT Sports. “It’s so hard, from the start to the end. The noise is even harder than when they score a goal. So, it’s a challenging environment to play.”
Liverpool will be without Alisson Becker for the match after the goalkeeper picked up an injury in training, leaving them without one key leader in the dressing room. Unlike in September, and despite his insipid form, Salah is nailed-on for a place on the right wing. It remains to be seen whether Slot is brave enough to take Gerrard’s advice and use Ngumoha ahead of Gakpo on the other flank.
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