Arne Slot has said he will not be thinking about the upcoming Paris Saint-Germain and Newcastle United games when he selects his side to face Southampton on Saturday, although admitted fitness levels are a factor that could influence his thinking.
The Reds host PSG in the second leg of the Champions League last-16 tie on Tuesday before traveling to Wembley to take on Newcastle next weekend in the Carabao Cup final. In comparison, a home Premier League match against Southampton could be downplayed, but that’s not Slot’s view.
He referred to Saturday’s match at Anfield as the first of ‘three finals’ Liverpool faces in the space of nine days.
“For me, the one against Southampton is by far the most important. Not only because it is the first one we play, but it is also a very important one for us,” the Dutchman stated at Friday’s press conference.
But with the game coming just three days after that gruelling Champions League trip to Paris, Slot hinted that he might need to rotate his squad to keep everyone fresh.
“If I make the choice to play other players that is because I think it is the best way to win the game tomorrow and not because I want to rest them for the game against Paris Saint-Germain. The only way I make a change is because maybe there is only two days in between, that I might feel that playing someone else is a better option because we have many players of equal quality.
“That then only has to do with us having a better chance to win against Southampton than it has to do with the Paris Saint-Germain game.
“If there would be three, four, five days in between these two games, I would probably have started the same XI again,” he added. “But since there are only two days in between and we had to work really hard in the first game, it’s probably the 50th game in three months, you take that into account.
Slot revealed he hoped to ‘influence’ Liverpool’s fans and ensure they arrive early to create an intimidating atmosphere ahead of what could be another match that pushes the Reds towards the title.
(Image: Dan Istitene/Getty Images)
He also believes Southampton’s performances are deserving of more points than the nine it has earned so far this season, while adding he doesn’t yet know his starting XIs for the matches against PSG and Newcastle.
“You take the quality of the team you have to face, the form of the players, how fit they are, which players fit best together. [Against PSG] we started with Lucho [Diaz] and Diogo [Jota], where Diogo is a player of a nine and half, almost. He is almost a midfielder as a striker.
“I finished with Curtis [Jones] and Darwin [Nunez], more of a midfielder on the left and a real nine, so you look at these combinations depending on the opposition and the formation of the other team.
“The good thing for us is that Southampton has the same formation with the ball as Paris Saint-Germain has. We need to do much better with the ball, to press Southampton better than we did against Paris-Saint Germain. It’s another good test for us.”
