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Arne Slot has revealed the five Liverpool players who played 270 minutes over the last week will be rested for the midweek Carabao Cup clash against Southampton.
The Reds returned from the recent September international break with a packed schedule that contained three fixtures in seven days. Liverpool emerged with victories from all three matches against Burnley, Atletico Madrid, and Everton, although Slot said a sluggish second half against the latter was a consequence of the intense period.
The Dutchman made four changes for the Merseyside derby, and squad management is clearly at the forefront of his mind. Slot is already planning to make at least five for Wednesday’s Carabao Cup tie against Southampton, with Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate, Ryan Gravenberch, Dominik Szoboszlai, and Mohamed Salah all due to be rested.
“This is why the teams that are playing in Europe need a squad like this because you need to play so many games,” Slot explained after the 2-1 win over Everton.
“It’s not an excuse and we have to accept it as it is. But we have had some issues with Alexander Isak not training for four months, [Alexis] Mac Allister missing a lot. I could go on and on. But the good thing is that I have the options to rotate throughout the week.
“The ones that played three times 90 [minutes] are Virgil, Ibou, Mo, Ryan and Dom – the ones that are used to this intensity and this level. And again, they showed up really good.
“I can tell you now you won’t be seeing them on Tuesday,” he added. “If that’s any help for Southampton then they already know.”
Liverpool didn’t need to rely on a late goal against Everton, as has tended to be the case this season. First-half goals from Gravenberch and Hugo Ekitike secured all three points at Anfield and ensured Idrissa Gueye’s second-half strike proved irrelevant.
But given Liverpool’s schedule and levels of fatigue, Slot said it took another resolute finish from Liverpool to take three points in the derby.
“We needed mentality today in a different fashion maybe than the few times before. But we always knew how difficult a game this would be, let alone if you have proper preparation time.
“But if you played your third game in less than seven days, against your rivals, then you know that the second half could be very tough – and that's why I made my line-ups throughout the week as I did, for the players to be ready for this one because this was the most intense from the three, we knew this before.
“You could see how well we can play if we are fresh – the first 45 minutes, unbelievable, the way we played.
“But the second half was more difficult because of Everton, of course, but also because we ran a bit out of energy. But we didn't run out of mentality.”
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