Fresh from clinching their 20th English top-flight title, Liverpool’s challenge is to remain motivated for the remaining two games of the season, manager Arne Slot said ahead of Monday’s clash at Brighton & Hove Albion.
Liverpool sealed the Premier League title last month and have a huge 15-point lead over second-placed Arsenal at the top of the table.
Slot’s players have enjoyed some extra time off since wrapping up the league and several were pictured enjoying a break in Dubai this week.
Slot said the team’s mentality was positive but motivating the players was a challenge with nothing riding on their final two games.
“It’s difficult for a team who has already won the league to train so many days in a row, we have hardly had any time off in the season because of so many competitions – I want to make that clear,” Slot told reporters on Friday.
“The boys deserved a few days off, it’s been a long season for us, to train three days is enough to be physically ready for the game. To be mentally ready is something different.
“At the end of the season you have to find the right balance to be mentally fresh… I think the honest answer is yes (it is harder to motivate them).”
Liverpool clinched the title with a 5-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur last month and have since lost 3-1 at Chelsea and drawn 2-2 at home with Arsenal, after blowing a two-goal lead.
Plans are already underway for next season, but Slot said that players’ performances in the final two games would not impact his decisions on the make-up of the squad for the new campaign.
“The two last games are not to make up our mind on the players, no, we know the qualities our players have. It would not be fair to judge on these two games. I have been working with the players for 10 or 11 months,” Slot said.
“I have said so many times before we are very happy with the players we’ve got. If we feel if we can strengthen the squad we will do so, but it’s difficult to strengthen when you have won the league because it proves we have so many good players.”
Slot was remaining tight-lipped on media reports linking Liverpool to Bayer Leverkusen defender Jeremie Frimpong as a potential replacement for Trent Alexander-Arnold.
“It’s going to be a boring answer. We don’t talk about players we want to bring in public until the moment they sign,” he said.
