MatchLiverpool v Aston Villa: Team news

Ryan Gravenberch is in contention to return for the Anfield clash on Saturday (8pm GMT) after being absent for three games as a result of a twisted ankle.

The midfielder resumed training with his teammates on Thursday and Slot is optimistic he can feature versus the Midlands side.

"Ryan trained with us for the first time yesterday, will train with us today," the head coach said at his Friday pre-match press conference.

"Then we are going to make the call if he is able to start, yes or no."

Alexander Isak and Curtis Jones, however, are "99.9 per cent sure" to not be available this weekend.

Alisson Becker, Jeremie Frimpong and Giovanni Leoni are the Reds' other confirmed absentees.

Slot was also asked about handling the balance of Liverpool's fixture schedule with a number of injuries currently in his squad.

"That has been something every team, by the way, has, so it's again not an excuse for us because every team works with this," he said.

"But what was a bit different, for example, for me [to] last season is that last season they all had one year [of] Premier League experience as a minimum and they were fit when we started and they stayed fit.

"And now, they weren't all fit from the start and some players have to play maybe even more than you want them to do, which is a risk for them getting injured as well. But it's just the situation as it is and we have still more than enough good players available to play the game on Saturday, to play the game on Tuesday and to play the game on Sunday.

"But I have to take care of a few of them and that's why I made the decision not to play seven or eight players two days ago."

Harvey Elliott is ineligible to feature in the game due to being on loan at Villa from Liverpool.

Their head coach, Unai Emery, is also unable to call upon Emiliano Buendia, who was forced off in the first half of the win against Manchester City last time out.

"He is not available for tomorrow but the injury he has is going well," Emery told reporters on Friday. "I think with a few days more he can be fit and available for the next matches, hopefully."

Andres Garcia and Youri Tielemans remain sidelined.

Emery added: "Still the same players out. Youri Tielemans, he is progressing well. He is going to start training hopefully next week with the group.

"The other one is Andres. Andres is progressively getting better but still some weeks to come back."

Last match (Premier League)

Brentford 3-2 Liverpool (October 25): Mamardashvili, Bradley, Konate, Van Dijk, Kerkez, Szoboszlai, Jones, Wirtz, Salah, Gakpo, Ekitike.

Aston Villa 1-0 Manchester City (October 26): Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Torres, Digne, Kamara, Onana, McGinn, Rogers, Buendia, Watkins.