Six upcoming Liverpool stars to watch out for as five Arne Slot changes clear vs Southampton
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Liverpool turn their attention to the start of their Carabao Cup campaign this midweek, with Southampton the third round visitors to Anfield.
Last season the trophy narrowly escaped Arne Slot and Co, ironically as Alexander Isak helped former club Newcastle United to victory against the Reds in the final.
But now a new opportunity begins and the head coach has already hinted towards how he is going to handle the demands of simultaneous Premier League, European, and domestic cup campaigns.
Speaking after Saturday's 2-1 Merseyside derby win over Everton - his side's third match in six days - Slot directly named five huge stars he will rotate from the squad.
"The good thing is I have the option to rotate throughout the week, and the ones that played three times 90 minutes are Virgil [van Dijk], Ibou (Ibrahima Konate), Mo (Mohamed Salah), Ryan [Gravenberch] and Dom (Dominik Szoboszlai), the ones that are used to this intensity at this level, and again they showed up really good.
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"I can tell you now you won’t be seeing them on Tuesday."
In theory, this opens the door for not only several fringe players who have been made to play cameo roles in league matches so far, but also upcoming talents looking to prove they have what it takes to be future stars of Slot's squad.
Here, the ECHO takes a look at six Reds youngsters who could be handed opportunities against the Saints on Tuesday night (8pm).
Liverpool completed the £26m summer signing of Giovanni Leoni from Italian club Parma last month.
The 18-year-old penned a six-year contract.
He made 17 appearances for his former club in his breakthrough 2024/25 season and following the Reds' sale of Jarell Quansah one month earlier, the plan was for Leoni to enter straight into Slot's squad.
The central defender was named on the bench against Atletico Madrid last week and with Van Dijk and Konate both rested now, there is a strong chance the new recruit makes his debut.
Jayden Danns scored his first senior goals for Liverpool in a 3-0 win over Tuesday's opponents in the fifth round of the FA Cup in 2023/24.
As he also featured in the Carabao Cup final win vs Chelsea at Wembley Stadium that week, it was a dream start for the teenager.
But that seems so long ago now, and Danns' progress has been stunted by various injury troubles over the past 18 months.
He was meant to be on loan at Sunderland for the final half of last season, but missed out on Regis Le Bris' side earning promotion to the Premier League as he didn't recover in time.
But, like Nyoni, he was nowhere to be seen for the match against United Under-21s on Sunday.
The winger, who can also play centrally, has already scored once in three Premier League 2 appearances this term and could be called up by Slot for only the second time.
The Northern Irishman's only other inclusion was as an unused substitute against PSV in the Champions League last season.
A third player to miss the narrow defeat to United Under-21s was midfielder Tommy Pilling.
The 21-year-old fro St.