Welcome to our live coverage of Liverpool head coach Arne Slot's press conference to preview Sunday's Merseyside derby against Everton at Hill Dickinson Stadium. The Reds boss will be with us a 9am.
But before Slot is quizzed about Liverpool's first-ever trip to Everton's new home, he is likely to be asked for his reaction to the devastating that top goalscorer Hugo Ekitike is set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines with an Achilles tendon rupture.
The striker sustained the serious injury in Tuesday's Champions League quarter-final second-leg 2-0 home loss to Paris Saint-Germain, which ends the Reds' hopes of silverware this season.
The defending champions must now focus on sealing a top-five finish in the Premier League to secure qualification for next season's Champions League.
And they would go a long way to achieving that with victory at their city rivals.
As well as questions about the Blues, expect Slot to be asked over the fitness of Alexander Isak, who was restricted to 45 minutes against PSG in midweek, and whether first-choice goalkeeper Alisson Becker is any close to a return from a hamstring injury.
Ian Doyle is at the AXA Training Centre to bring you live updates from the press conference.
The Liverpool boss is here so we can begin...
We are waiting patiently and yet the Liverpool boss is still not among us...
We're still waiting on the Liverpool head coach.
Arne Slot will be with us at 9am. Stay tuned!
That's the opinion of the Premier League all-time leading goalscorer Alan Shearer, who told Betfair: "I expected what we saw Liverpool do in the second half to happen in the first half. They made a huge call-in leaving Mo Salah on the bench which wasn’t the right call for me. Not when you look at Alexander Isak's performance, not when he only had five touches.
"He didn't look fit, and it was a huge call to leave their main goalscorer out, albeit he hasn't been in great form with only 11 goals this season. Having said that, he did score the weekend. Another big call was to leave Rio Ngumoha out. So, there were one or two selection surprises.
"In the second half, they had a 25-minute spell where they put PSG under pressure but didn't really create any big chances. I think the keeper made two good saves, one in the first half, one in the second half but other than that, Liverpool didn't have enough to break them down. PSG had what Liverpool didn't in terms of a lethal, clinical goalscorer in Ousmane Dembele.
"The best team won over two legs. I mean, in every position, PSG were better than Liverpool. It's been a tough season for Liverpool."
Florian Wirtz says the Liverpool squad owe it to the club and the fans to secure Champions League football next season.
The Reds exited Europe's premier competition at the quarter-final stage on Tuesday night as holders Paris Saint-Germain won 2-0 at Anfield to triumph 4-0 across the two legs.
And having been knocked out of the FA Cup earlier this month by Manchester City at the same stage, Wirtz believes the players must finish the term strongly to ensure they don't miss out on the Champions League,
“The focus goes completely to the end of the season for the league,” the £116m summer signing from Bayern Leverkusen told the club's website.
“We have to play [in the] Champions League next season, we owe this to the club and to the fans.
"We will give our best, like we did today, and hopefully we can make minimum the top five.
"We tried everything. I think the whole stadium was on fire and the fans, big compliments to them.“We tried everything from the first minute, but we needed that one goal to get the turnaround started.
"We were just missing the goal. That’s football – when you don’t score goals, you don’t win games.”
Paul Gorst, our Liverpool correspondent, is on a day off today, but he signed off by writing this article on what Arne Slot will be likely to be quizzed about this morning.
You can read the article HERE.
Hugo Ekitike joins fellow long-term injuries victims Giovanni Leoni, Conor Bradley and Wataru Endo on the sidelines.
They will all miss the match against Everton and there is a doubt over first-choice goalkeeper Alisson Becker, too.
The Brazil international has been out with a hamstring injury for a month and, while he is expected to return to action this month, it remains to be seen whether he will be fit to face the Blues.
It doesn't take a genius to predict that the first question Arne Slot will face this morning regard Hugo Ekitike.
Liverpool confirmed the news every supporter was fearing yesterday when they released a statement revealing that their top goalscorer had suffer rupture of the Achilles tendon in the midweek Champions League loss to Paris Saint-Germain at Anfield.
The statement in full read: "Liverpool FC can confirm Hugo Ekitike has sustained a serious Achilles injury.
"The forward had to be substituted during the first half of Tuesday's Champions League match against Paris Saint-Germain at Anfield after a slip on the turf.
"Scans on the issue have subsequently confirmed a rupture of the Achilles tendon.
"Ekitike will therefore be sidelined for the remaining weeks of the club season and unable to participate at this summer's World Cup with France.
"Further updates will be provided at the appropriate time, with Hugo receiving the full support of everyone at LFC."
And welcome to our live coverage of Arne Slot's latest press conference. The Liverpool head coach will be with us at 9am.
Slot is staging it, of course, primarily to talk about the little matter of Sunday's Merseyside derby at Hill Dickinson Stadium against Everton.
It's set to be an historic match given it is the first time the city rivals have gone head to head at the Blues' new waterfront home.
And there's a lot riding on it, with the Reds hoping to cement their place in the Premier League top five and their rivals hoping to get closer to gatecrashing it.
