Arne Slot says Liverpool’s Champions League sport at PSV Eindhoven has “no significance” to them.
Slot, whose facet are prime of the standings and thru to the final 16 after seven wins from seven to date, 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 a substitute, the likes of Caoimhin Kelleher, Conor Bradley, Jarell Quansah, Tyler Morton, Wataru Endo and Harvey Elliott will probably be handed an opportunity to impress.
“All those which might be left behind might have performed tomorrow,” mentioned Slot, “However for the long run, if you happen to look again at our season, it has been virtually each time after three or 4 or 5 weeks we gave them the break throughout the week when there was a League Cup or an FA Cup [game], if there was second for them to get some freshness again now we have all the time carried out that.
“It took me some time to know this new [Champions League] format.
“I all the time 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 are going to 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, it is a sport for us – as a result of we at the moment are 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 mentioned to me, ‘I’ve by no means seen something good coming from dropping a soccer sport’ so we aren’t going into the sport tomorrow attempting to lose the sport, we are going to do every thing we will to attempt to win it, in fact.”
Arne Slot insisted we will probably be doing every 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 provide his key stars relaxation so as handle their workload throughout the busy schedule.
He added: “I’m trying on the long-term of the method of group administration. Will probably be unusual if the group has the identical stage as different video games.
“After they play within the League Cup they might 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 in opposition to Lille final week.”
