Arne Slot Expects to Make Major Changes to Lineup for Southampton Tie

An early round League Cup tie is nearly guaranteed to mean squad rotation, particularly for the top Premier League sides focused as they are on league glory and the start of their European campaigns, and Tuesday night when Liverpool welcome Southampton to Anfield will be no different.

Manager Arne Slot isn’t going to pretend otherwise, acknowledging as much ahead of the match. Being defending Premier League champions and one of the favourites in the Champions League, though, means even a heavily rotated Liverpool side, though, will likely be a strong team.

“We will certainly be making a number of changes for tonight’s fixture,” Slot noted. “It is too early to say how many, but whatever the number we will select a starting line-up more than ready to play against Southampton—a team we know well, having faced them three times last season.

“In terms of the game itself, we go into it on the back of a victory over Everton. That win maintained a start to the season which has been promising. We know there is room for improvement [but] this victory gave me pleasure because it followed a demanding schedule of Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday fixtures.

“Inevitably, our energy levels weren’t the same at the end of such a testing week as they were at the start. I need to stress once again this is not an excuse. The way they faced up to this challenge showed such a strong collective mentality winning such a tough fixture is a huge credit to them.”

Slot has already ruled out Alisson Becker in goal, Virgil van Dijk in defence, Dominik Szoboszlai in midfield, and Mohamed Salah in attack. That will mean, though, Giorgi Mamardashvili in goal, Joe Gomez and Giovanni Leoni in defence, Wataru Endo and Curtis Jones in midfield, and Alexander Isak in attack.

Add in Federico Chiesa and Rio Ngumoha on the wings, likely Andy Robertson captaining the side at left back, and even a potential start for promising youngster Trey Nyoni in midfield won’t stop it looking a side that on paper at least would be able to beat most Premier League opposition.

“We know Southampton will provide difficult opposition even though we now occupy different divisions,” Slot added. “Apart from the final, which unfortunately did not go our way, we enjoyed some really good moments in this competition last season. Our aim is to do the same this time around.”

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