Arne Slot confirms right-back plan for West Ham visit after Curtis Jones experiment | OneFootball

Liverpool manager Arne Slot has confirmed that Conor Bradley is in contention to start against West Ham United at Anfield on Sunday.

The Northern Irishman picked up a muscle injury against Aston Villa in mid-February and missed seven games across all competitions. Normally the understudy to Trent Alexander-Arnold, Bradley's absence became more of a problem when Alexander-Arnold was then sidelined with an ankle injury of his own.

Luckily, Liverpool had already built up a sizeable advantage in the Premier League title race before they travelled to Fulham last Sunday, making their surprise 3-2 defeat at Craven Cottage slightly more palatable.

In that game, central midfielder Curtis Jones was shifted to right-back as an experiment, but Bradley's arrival as a second half substitute offered far greater balance to the Reds – he even provided an assist for Luis Diaz's goal five minutes after coming on.

Now, with West Ham the visitors to Merseyside, it looks like Liverpool could have Bradley back in the fold from the start after a full week of training.

“Yes, it does,” Slot told reporters, asked if Bradley was in a position to be included. "Of course it’s a boost, it’s always a boost when quality players come back. Especially quality players in that position, because I think Curtis Jones is a quality player but it’s not his favourite position.

Curtis Jones filled in at right-back against Fulham / Visionhaus/GettyImages

"So to have a player in his favourite position is always – not always - but might be better for the team. And Conor has done so well for us this season, just like Trent [Alexander-Arnold]. But when Trent then isn’t there, you always hope to look behind you and see that Conor is available.

"But then if he isn’t, we have to solve that problem. And we are not the only team in this league that has had these problems. We’ve tried to bring the best out of it.

"That worked really well against Everton. I think Curtis played well also against Fulham. Of course he was involved in the goal but you can ask yourself the question if he could do so much about that. He did it quite well to very well, in my opinion, for two times.

"But now to have Conor back, I think we all would make the same decision and that’s playing Conor in that position."

Liverpool head into the game in fine spirits. They are closing on a second Premier League title, sitting 11 points ahead of Arsenal with just 21 left to play for, and confirmed a new two-year contract for talisman Mohamed Salah on Friday after months of speculation over his future.