Slot Talk: Fixture Congestion Makes Team Selection Difficult
As well as dealing with injuries, Liverpool head coach Arne Slot is making team selections in a crowded calendar. Speaking to the press ahead of Saturday night’s FA Cup match against Brighton, Slot underscored this challenge:
“Not the first time this season that we have to play three games in seven days and I’ve said many times, it’s part of being a top club, a big club, that you play a lot of games. But three in eight is already better and some teams have three in nine.
“And then it also depends of course, in the FA Cup, what draw you have and we play a very strong Brighton team because I think there are a lot of comparisons between Brighton and us. They absolutely don’t deserve to be in a position they are in at the moment, they play so much better than the league table shows. Almost every game they are competitive and deserve more than they get.
“So yeah, it’s another challenge… yesterday evening it took me a long, long time before I could fall into sleep because I was constantly considering what options I have for the line-up and what I should do, because indeed do you play the same players again or the others?
“Is this a moment for the others? But which others and in which position? So, I need another 24 hours to decide on the line-up.”
Slot sees this particular challenge as one of balancing priorities:
“We’ve got three priorities – FA Cup, Champions League qualification and the Champions League – but we’re also aware of the limited options I have, we have, in terms of the squad.
“So, the load management is important as well because the last thing we could use right now is another injury.
“That is always a difficult balance for a manager, including his performance staff and medical staff: what is the best decision to make every single time? And it is also true that it wouldn’t be for the first time that a player could get injured if he has to play three games in seven days.
“But it happened also many, many, many times that the player could just play three games in seven days, so that’s the challenge we’re having.
“But the most important thing is we have to train today, see how the players are doing, listen to them [about] how they feel, and then make the best possible decision.”
The press also wondered about the possibility of seeing young players in this one:
“A few of them come closer and closer to first-team football and a few of them already had it, with Rio [Ngumoha] and Trey [Nyoni].
“Games like this could be an option for them as well but, like I said, it’s finding the right balance because we do play a very strong and good team with Brighton tomorrow and finding the right balance in who to play is something we are going to think about even more today.”
Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com
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