Arne Slot includes 4 current Liverpool stars as he picks dream Champions League XI; Xavi, Iniesta and Zidane miss out
Liverpool manager Arne Slot has revealed his dream Champions League XI featuring players who have won the trophy at least once. The Dutchman's team included some big names while others such as Xavi, Andres Iniesta, and Zinedine Zidane were the biggest omissions.
The former Feyenoord boss, who moved to Anfield in the summer, included four of his current players alongside Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard. The 46-year-old was asked to pick his team from players who have won the trophy, which meant that Ronaldo Nazario and Zlatan Ibrahimovic weren't available for selection.
Slot's ideal Champions League XI, courtesy of Amazon Prime (via GiveMeSport), can be found below:
Goalkeeper: Alisson Becker
Defence: Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, Gerard Pique, Frank De Boer
Midfield: Sergio Busquets, Steven Gerrard, Luka Modric
Forward: Mohamed Salah, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo
Slot explains selection of Liverpool players in his Champions League XI
Liverpool players - past and present - featured heavily in Arne Slot's dream Champions League XI. The Anfield boss said of his chosen goalkeeper, Alisson Becker:
"Since I’ve worked with him, I see how special he is and how many important saves he already made. He’s been outstanding for Liverpool in all these years, it’s an easy pick for me to go for Alisson," Slot said (as per the aforementioned source).
The defensive duo of Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk, who were part of Jurgen Klopp's 2019 Champions League-winning team, formed half of Slot's backline.
"I am going to go for Trent in the right full-back position, for obvious reasons. I think he’s been so special for Liverpool in all these years, coming from the academy [to] winning the Champions League at this club," Slot explained.
"Virgil needs to be there. He has had a lot of impact on this club. I think when he and Alisson came in was the last step the team needed to make. Impressive centre-back, really good in the air, he has all the attributes a centre-back should have. So he’s for sure in it," he added.
The Reds boss, who is a fan of Barcelona great Andres Iniesta and Real Madrid legend Zinedine Zidane, admitted that managing Liverpool swayed his decision in picking Gerrard.
"If you would have asked me this a year ago I would have probably said Iniesta, but I think now I’m going to go for Steven Gerrard, being Liverpool manager," Slot said.
He also explained the magnitude of Gerrard's task considering the quality of the Englishman's teammates compared to the star-studded teams Zidane and Iniesta played in.
"Why he [Gerrard] might deserve to be in my team is that the other ones, like Iniesta, like Zidane, they played with incredible teammates, and of course Steven Gerrard played with good to really good teammates, but I don’t think he played with the same level of players," Slot said. "Then still being so special for the club, lifting the trophy once, playing so long for this club, he meant so much for it.”
Slot pointed out that the right-wing position in his dream Champions League XI was an obvious one in Egyptian Mohamed Salah.
"For me, it’s clear that Mo Salah should be in. Eight or nine years on such a high level in the recent history of this club, he’s scored so many goals. He’s been really special for this club," he said.
Liverpool currently have a 100% record in this season's Champions League and resume their campaign with a trip to RB Leipzig on Wednesday, October 23.