Arne Slot says Liverpool’s Champions League recreation at PSV Eindhoven has “no significance” to them.
Slot, whose facet are high of the standings and thru to the final 16 after seven wins from seven up to now, has named a youthful squad for the sport within the Netherlands on Wednesday.
Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk haven’t travelled with the squad, with Alisson Becker, Ibrahima Konate, Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai, Luis Diaz additionally absent.
As an alternative, the likes of Caoimhin Kelleher, Conor Bradley, Jarell Quansah, Tyler Morton, Wataru Endo and Harvey Elliott shall be handed an opportunity to impress.
“All those which can be left behind may have performed tomorrow,” stated Slot, “However for the long run, in case you look again at our season, it has been nearly each time after three or 4 or 5 weeks we gave them the break in the course of the week when there was a League Cup or an FA Cup [game], if there was second for them to get some freshness again we now have at all times achieved that.
“It took me some time to know this new [Champions League] format.
“I at all times say once I suppose I’m 100 per cent positive, I exploit ‘99.9’ however now I can say I’m 100 per cent positive that it doesn’t matter in any respect if we find yourself one or two [in the table] as a result of we’ll play 14, 15, 16, 17 after which in the long run it’s a draw [for] which of the groups we’re going to face.
“So, this can be a recreation for us – as a result of we are actually No.1 or No.2, we can not drop to No.3 – that has no significance of consequence coming to the league desk.
“However a really clever man as soon as stated to me, ‘I’ve by no means seen something good coming from dropping a soccer recreation’ so we aren’t going into the sport tomorrow making an attempt to lose the sport, we’ll do every little thing we will to attempt to win it, in fact.”
Arne Slot insisted we shall be doing every little thing to win at PSV, as he defined the rationale for naming a rotated squad for tomorrow’s #UCL tie ⤵️
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) January 28, 2025
Liverpool are battling on 4 fronts this season and Slot says he made the choice to present his key stars relaxation so as handle their workload in the course of the busy schedule.
He added: “I’m trying on the long-term of the method of group administration. It will likely be unusual if the group has the identical degree as different video games.
“After they play within the League Cup they may beat Southampton and Brighton. It wasn’t that simple however we did win. Cody Gakpo, I made a decision to convey him for instance. I do take into consideration some sentiments however he didn’t play towards Lille final week.”
