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Arne Slot addressed the current situation of his Liverpool fringe players.
Arne Slot has admitted that it’s difficult for his Liverpool fringe players to currently break into his starting line-up.
The Reds are in a crucial period of their season. They currently top the Premier League table by 15 points and now prepare for the Carabao Cup final against Newcastle United on Sunday.
Given the hectic run of fixtures - and the importance of them - it’s meant that Slot has not rotated his XI. The Liverpool head coach has used a core group of players such as Virgil van Dijk, Mo Salah, Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister.
Harvey Elliott has not been able to break into Slot’s team despite coming off the bench to score in the Champions League last-16 first-leg win over Paris Saint-Germain. Meanwhile, Wataru Endo has continued to impress as a substitute but not been given a chance from the outset and Federico Chiesa has been unused for the past eight games.
Slot, speaking before the Carabao Cup final, says that his players out of favour are working hard and are in training the day after games when team-mates are usually doing recovery. But he admits playing so many matches is ‘not ideal’. The Liverpool boss said: “These players hardly trained with the starters. If you look at our schedule in the past 3-4 months, if for example we play on Saturday and then Sunday, the ones who played on Saturday are only doing recovery sessions and are not on the pitch.
“Then it's the day before the game and it's 10-15 minutes of tactics, more walking football than playing football. So there is hardly a moment when they can compete with each other but the day after the game, I am always outside with my assistants and many managers have great exercises and the players always show themselves in these moments.
“Those are moments to show where you are if you improved yes or no or if you come closer to the players starting and when they come in. For the ones that don't start, it's not an ideal world we have so many games, that is completely true.”
Related topics:Arne SlotNewcastle UnitedPremier LeagueFootball
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