Arne Slot has revealed that it will sound a change in Liverpool’s Carabao Cup clash with Southampton on Tuesday night after already confirming that the first team of five is not featured. The Reds beat Everton 2-1 in the 247th Merseyside Derby on Saturday, with strikes from Lian Grain Burch and Hugo Ekitique scored points at Anfield. Slot had already proposed that many of his star performers would give him a third round cup tie breather following the weekend match.
And the manager confirmed that a completely fresh XI would face Southampton. Dutchman also insisted that it was right to add just three minutes to Anfield, as Everton looked for a slow equalizer, despite saying he wanted extra time to complete a promising counterattack before the final whi. “We can look into everything (the players), Wataru’s endings, and some more. These are players who need the game and we’re happy to have something we have,” Slot said.
“If we didn’t have it, we would have arranged for friendly this week for these players because we need them to play the game to keep them ready when they need it.
“We have used a lot of teams in the last three games, because we felt we needed to maintain this energy in every game, but not all.
“It’s the same approach we filmed at last season’s League Cup. There are a lot of games that need to be played and players can do that, but sometimes they need a little rest.
“So they can do a lot, but sometimes they need to take a little rest. And I’m talking about two days of rest, but that’s not much yet.
“Yes, there’s a completely changed lineup. But it’s clear that our players are fit. There’s a lot to say about the extra time against Everton, but we were in a 5-2 situation at the moment, so we wanted to play for 34 seconds.
Incidentally, the 3 minutes were completely right (against Everton), only the moment when the substitution was made, so it wasn’t something we were doing so we didn’t waste time. Unfortunately, I sometimes had no treatment for injuries and didn’t get one goal.
“Then you’ll end up in three (minutes). You can waste a lot of time in many other games when you need a goal.
Slot added: “We reached the finals with these (changed) lineups last season. There are no underrated trophies. We always want to win every trophy that competes. But that’s a good thing about the quality of the team we have.
“But we have to think about the long term too. If we want to compete in every trophy, some players need a normal week, which is sometimes not even played in the week.
