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Arne Slot has said he will name a “completely changed line-up” for Liverpool’s Carabao Cup tie against Southampton on Tuesday.
The third-round clash falls perfectly in the middle of a gruelling 21-day period in which Liverpool plays seven matches. Unsurprisingly, the Southampton clash has been earmarked as one to afford several players a well-deserved break.
Slot already confirmed on Saturday that Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate, Ryan Gravenberch, Dominik Szoboszlai and Mohamed Salah will be rested after playing every minute of the wins over Burnley, Atletico Madrid and Burnley. More changes are expected, with Slot planning to use the game to boost the fitness levels of the squad’s fringe members.
“Yes, there will be a completely changed line-up,” the Liverpool head coach said ahead of the cup tie.
“Same as we did last season in the League Cup. So many games need to be played and our players are able to do so, but once in a while they need a bit of rest as well because we sometimes tend to forget because we are so focused on our games at Liverpool, but many of them have played twice for the national teams as well.
“So, they are able to do a lot but once in a while they need a little bit of rest – and I'm talking about two days of rest, which is still not a lot.”
The wholesale changes for the match could see Slot hand competitive debuts to summer signings Giorgi Mamardashvili and Giovanni Leoni, while Alexander Isak may start for just a second time since his record-breaking arrival from Newcastle United on transfer deadline day.
“We can go through all of them, Wata Endo and a few more,” said the Dutchman. “These are the players that need a game and we're happy that we have one. If we wouldn't have had one, we probably would have arranged a friendly in this week for these players because they need to play games as well to keep them ready whenever we need them.
“We've used quite a lot in the last three games because we thought we needed to keep this energy throughout all three games, but not all of them. And the few we haven't used, it's definitely the perfect moment for them to get playing time.”
That cohort could include Joe Gomez, Curtis Jones, Federico Cheisa and Rio Ngumoha, none of whom have started in the last three. Andy Robertson may captain the team, while Trey Nyoni might be in line for a rare start.
Despite the alterations to his usual line-up, Slot underlined that he takes the Carabao Cup seriously and hopes to go one better this time around after losing in the final to Newcastle last season.
“There's no trophy we underestimate,” said the former Feyenoord boss. “We always want to win every trophy we compete for.
“That's the good thing about the quality of the squad we have, that we still have a very good team that we can play tomorrow. But we have to think about the long-term as well.
“If we want to compete in every single trophy then some players need a normal week, which is not playing during the week once in a while. That's managing a team throughout the whole season with trying to compete at every level.”
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