Arne Slot has explained why he and his squad were not working at the AXA Training Centre this week, having spent four days in Ibiza and Dubai respectively.
Slot went viral on social media after footage emerged of the Liverpool head coach enjoying himself at the O Beach club in Ibiza.
Meanwhile, the Liverpool squad were spotted enjoying time together in Dubai, where they stayed at the Atlantis The Royal hotel on a trip organised as part of Trent Alexander-Arnold‘s farewell.
With the title already won there is little for the Reds to play for, but their absence from the training ground still courted criticism from some quarters.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference ahead of Monday night’s clash with Brighton, Slot explained why he and his staff felt it right to grant time off earlier in the week.
“Today is the first day we come back together,” he told reporters on Friday.
“We feel this is also a very good lead-up to our game on Monday, because as I’ve said before it’s quite difficult for a team that already won the league to train so many days in a row.
“If you’ve already won something, you need to find the balance between days off and preparing very well for the next game.
“So we train today, tomorrow and Sunday, that’s three days in a row to be very well prepared for Brighton.
“Keep in mind that these players never had a few days off during the season, because we were in the FA Cup, League Cup and Champions League, and of course the Premier League for a long time.
“So when other teams maybe had a few days off during the season we hardly ever had that.”
Slot added: “It’s been a very long season for us and we feel, we think three days’ lead-up towards the game on Monday is more than enough time to be physically well prepared.
“If we are mentally well prepared for a very difficult game, against a team that can play really well, that is something that has nothing to do with us being somewhere else or over here.
“But that does have something maybe to do with, for us, there is nothing else at stake apart from winning a game of football.”
Given the season is almost over and Liverpool will be able to enjoy themselves with celebrations on May 25 and 26, lifting the trophy at Anfield before a victory parade around the city, there may have been questions about the timing of their break.
But as Slot continued he acknowledged that it was a rare opportunity for his players to spend downtime together as a squad.
“Normally, especially in this league but in general – even in Holland, the last game is really special, you should watch it – it’s about the last game,” he said.
“If you’ve won it then and you want to go [away] after the season then wives, girlfriends, children are like ‘come on, I haven’t seen my dad for such a long time, let’s go on holiday now with the family’ – which I can completely agree with.
“So we were in the great position that not only have we won it earlier on already, but also we played on Sunday and the next game is on Monday.
“Even if we wouldn’t have won it yet, they wouldn’t have had four days but they probably would have had two or three then as well.
“Because in the end of the season you have to find the right balance in keeping them fit enough to play, but also get them mentally fresh.
“That’s what we tried to do last week – before the Arsenal game we had a few days off as well – and this week also.”
