Arne Slot says Liverpool’s Champions League game at PSV Eindhoven has “no importance” to them.
Slot, whose side are top of the standings and through to the last 16 after seven wins from seven so far, has named a youthful squad for the game in the Netherlands on Wednesday.
Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk have not travelled with the squad, with Alisson Becker, Ibrahima Konate, Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai, Luis Diaz also absent.
Instead, the likes of Caoimhin Kelleher, Conor Bradley, Jarell Quansah, Tyler Morton, Wataru Endo and Harvey Elliott will be handed a chance to impress.
“All the ones that are left behind could have played tomorrow,” said Slot, “But for the long term, if you look back at our season, it has been almost every time after three or four or five weeks we gave them the break during the week when there was a League Cup or an FA Cup [game], if there was moment for them to get some freshness back we have always done that.
“It took me a while to understand this new [Champions League] format.
“I always say when I think I’m 100 per cent sure, I use ‘99.9’ but now I can say I’m 100 per cent sure that it doesn’t matter at all if we end up one or two [in the table] because we will play 14, 15, 16, 17 and then in the end it’s a draw [for] which of the teams we are going to face.
“So, this is a game for us – because we are now No.1 or No.2, we cannot drop to No.3 – that has no importance of result coming to the league table.
“But a very wise man once said to me, ‘I have 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 to try to win it, of course.”
Arne Slot insisted we will be doing everything to win at PSV, as he explained the rationale for naming a rotated squad for tomorrow’s #UCL tie ⤵️
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) January 28, 2025
Liverpool are battling on four fronts this season and Slot says he made the decision to give his key stars rest in order manage their workload during the busy schedule.
He added: “I’m looking at the long-term of the process of group management. It will be strange if the group has the same level as other games.
“When they play in the League Cup they could beat Southampton and Brighton. It wasn’t that easy but we did win. Cody Gakpo, I decided to bring him for example. I do think about some sentiments but he didn’t play against Lille last week.”
