Arne Slot says he chooses ‘choice for long-term’ at rest Liverpool-Regular to PSV assembly

Arne Castle says he protects his team in the most important months to come, as tomorrow’s Champions League match with PSV Eindhoven has “no bearing on the league table”.

The main coach has left most of his first -team players at home, as Liverpool has already qualified for the last 16 and is guaranteed to finish in the top two positions.

Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate, Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allists, Dominik Szoboszlai, Mohamed Salah and Luis Diaz have not traveled and will have a day with rest Wednesday before returning to the train early Thursday morning.

“It took me some time to understand this new format, but now I can say that I am 100 percent sure it doesn’t matter if we’re finished first or second because we play the team in 14, 15, 16 Or 17, it’s a draw which team we face, ”says Castle. “We can’t fall to number three, so this is a game for us that has no bearing on the league table.

“But a very wise man told me he has never seen anything good about losing a football match, so we will do everything we can to try to win it.”

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Slot has worked closely with its staff to decide which players need a rest in front of a continued busy period.

He decided to bring Cody Gakpo when he would give him the opportunity to meet his former page, which he joined Liverpool from two years ago.

“These players are ready and all the players who were left could have played tomorrow,” he says.

“But in the long term-so it doesn’t tell us anything on Saturday’s game-if you look back on our season, after four or five weeks, we gave them a break during the week if there was a moment to give them one. We’ve always done it to keep them fresh.

“Because we mainly start with 13 or 14 players who have shared most of playing time, some of the others have not played much.

“It is very useful for the other players to now get 90 minutes, because if we get into problems with injury, it will be useful to have these players. It is a choice we have made in the long term. “

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(Robin van Lonkhuijsen/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)