Arne Slot defends controversial Merseyside derby decision - 'Completely correct'
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Arne Slot has confirmed he will make wholesale changes for Liverpool's visit of Southampton in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday and defended the officials' decision to add just three minutes to the end of their Merseyside derby win over Everton.
The Reds beat their local rivals in the 247th derby on Saturday lunchtime as goals from Ryan Gravenberch and Hugo Ekitike did the damage in the first period, despite a strike from Idrissa Gueye shortly before the hour mark.
Slot had already hinted many of his key players would be rested for Tuesday's visit of the Championship outfit after the weekend's fixture, but with a delegation from the club attending Monday night's Ballon d'Or awards in Paris, the head coach has now confirmed it will be a totally new lineup against the Saints.
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And Slot said it was correct that only three minutes were tagged on to the end of proceedings at Anfield at the weekend as Everton chased a late equaliser, saying he would have liked more time to finish off a threatening counter-attack for his own team before the final whistle sounded.
"We can go through all of [the players], Wataru Endo and a few more, these are the players that need a game and we're happy that we have one," Slot said.
"If we wouldn't have had one, we probably would have arranged a friendly in this week for these players because they need to play games as well to keep them ready whenever we need them.
"We've used quite a lot in the last three games because we thought we needed to keep this energy throughout all the three games – but not all of them.
And the few we haven't used, it's definitely the perfect moment for them to get playing time.
"It's the same as we did last season in the League Cup.
So many games need to be played and our players are able to do so, but once in a while they need a bit of rest as well because we sometimes tend to forget because we are so focused – and I'm the first one – on our games at Liverpool but many of them have played twice for the national teams as well.
"So, they are able to do a lot but once in a while they need a little bit of rest – and I'm talking about two days of rest, which is still not a lot.
"Yes, there will be a completely changed line-up.
Where in many other games when we need a goal, there's a lot, a lot, a lot of time-wasting going on, I can tell you."
Slot added: "Last season we reached the final with these [changed] line-ups.
But that's the good thing about the quality of the squad we have, that we still have a very good team that we can play tomorrow.
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"But we have to think about the long-term as well.