Liverpool can afford to rest a host of regular starters for their last league-phase game in the Champions League and giving players a break is more of a priority than maintaining first place in the standings, manager Arne Slot said on Tuesday.
Captain Virgil van Dijk, top scorer Mohamed Salah and keeper Alisson have all been left behind for Wednesday’s game at PSV Eindhoven, along with Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ibrahima Konate, Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai and Luis Diaz.
Liverpool, guaranteed a place in the Champions League’s last 16, also lead the Premier League and are still in the FA Cup and League Cup, so will have plenty of big matches to come this season.
“I think we are playing, like all the teams in Europe, many, many, many games and these players have already, so all the ones that are left behind could have played tomorrow,” Slot told reporters.
“If you look back at our season, it’s been almost every time after three or four or five weeks, we gave them a break during the week when it was the League Cup or the FA Cup.
“If there was a moment for them to get some freshness back, we’ve always done that.”
While Slot’s side have won all seven games in the competition, Liverpool could still be overtaken at the top by Barcelona if they lose at PSV, but the manager was not overly concerned about their final position.
Liverpool cannot slip out of the top two, and when it comes to the round of 16 draw, whether they finish first or second will make no difference to whom they will face next.
“It took me a while to understand this new format, but I always say when I think I’m 100 per cent sure I used 99.9 per cent, but now I can say I’m 100 per cent sure that it doesn’t matter at all if we end up first or second,” Slot said.
“Because we will play a side between 15th and 18th place, and then in the end it’s a draw which of the teams we are going to face.
“So this is a game for us, because we are now number one, or two, we cannot drop to number three.
“But a very wise man once said to me, I’ve never seen anything good coming from losing a football game, so we are not going into the game tomorrow trying to lose the game, we will do everything we can trying to win it of course.”
PSV are 19th on 11 points, and avoiding defeat to Liverpool would guarantee their place in the playoffs.
