Arne Slot sends another brutal message to Calvin Ramsay

Liverpool’s right-back crisis has deepened to the point of absurdity, yet even with bodies falling around him Calvin Ramsay remains the man Arne Slot refuses to trust. The 22-year-old Scot has watched every Premier League match from the bench since early December, a spectator at his own crossroads, and Wednesday night’s 1-0 win over Sunderland confirmed that exile is no accident.

Slot’s hand has been forced all season. Trent Alexander-Arnold’s £10 million departure to Real Madrid last summer began the spiral; Jeremie Frimpong’s £29 million arrival from Bayer Leverkusen was meant to steady it, but the Dutchman is already on his third significant injury lay-off and looks increasingly like an auxiliary winger. Conor Bradley, fresh from signing a new deal, lasted until early January before a complex knee complaint ended his campaign. Joe Gomez has shouldered the load yet even he spent last month in the treatment room after a knock against Bournemouth. Dominik Szoboszlai was dragooned into the role, stripping Liverpool’s midfield of its dynamo, only to sit out the mid-week fixture through suspension after a red card versus Manchester City. Wataru Endo, a 33-year-old destroyer, volunteered to fill the void, started his first league game of the season out of position, and was stretchered off with a second-half injury that left Anfield wincing.

That succession of calamities left the door ajar for Ramsay, the only fit, natural right-back on the books. Instead, Slot slammed it shut. Speaking on the eve of the Sunderland tie, the head coach said bluntly: “I’ve chosen other players until now and that’s also what I’m going to do tomorrow.” He was true to his word: Ramsay stayed rooted to the bench, Szoboszlai will return for Sunday’s FA Cup fourth-round trip to Brighton, and Gomez—only recently back from injury—is expected to start ahead of the Scot once again.

The pecking order is damning. Ahead of Ramsay stand the injured Frimpong and Bradley, the midfielders Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones, the recuperating Gomez and, when fit, Endo. A player signed from Aberdeen in 2022 has become an after-thought, reduced to a single appearance in the EFL Cup defeat at Crystal Palace back in October. With every improvised selection Slot reiterates the same brutal message: Ramsay is not fifth-choice, not even sixth-choice; he is no choice at all.