Arne Slot says he is protecting his squad for the key months ahead as tomorrow’s Champions League game with PSV Eindhoven has “no importance to the league table”.
The head coach has left most of his first-team players at home as Liverpool have already qualified for the last 16 and are guaranteed to finish in the top two positions.
Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate, Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai, Mohamed Salah and Luis Diaz have not travelled and will be given a day of rest on Wednesday before returning to train early on Thursday morning.
“It took me some time to understand this new format but now I can say that I’m 100 per cent sure that it doesn’t matter if we finish first or second because we will play the team in 14, 15, 16 or 17, then it is a draw of which team we will face,” Slot says. “We cannot drop to number three so this is a game for us that has no importance to the league table.
“But a very wise man said to me that he’s never seen anything good from losing a football game so we will do everything we can to try and win it.”
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Slot has worked closely with his staff to decide which players need a rest ahead of a continued busy period.
He decided to take Cody Gakpo along as he wanted to give him the opportunity to face his former side, who he joined Liverpool from two years ago.
“These players are ready and all the players who were left behind could have played tomorrow,” he says.
“But in the long-term — so it doesn’t tell us anything about Saturday’s game — if you look back at our season, after four or five weeks, we gave them a break during the week if there was a moment to give them one. We’ve always done it to keep them fresh.
“Also, because we mainly start with 13 or 14 players who have shared most of the playing time, some of the others haven’t played a lot.
“It’s very useful for the other players to now get 90 minutes because if we do get into any injury problems, it will be useful to have these players. It’s a choice we have made for the long term.”
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(Robin van Lonkhuijsen/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)