Slot praises young Reds ahead of Saints clash

Arne Slot will get creative with his starting line-up for Wednesday night’s Carabao Cup quarter-final clash against Southampton FC at St. Mary’s.

The hectic December schedule continues for Liverpool FC on Wednesday night, as Arne Slot brings his young stars to St. Mary’s for the Carabao Cup quarter-final clash with Southampton FC at St. Mary’s.

Speaking to the media on Tuesday, the club’s head coach revealed that a number of young players may feature in the midweek fixture, with Premier League clashes against Tottenham Hotspur FC (Sunday), Leicester City FC (Boxing Day) and West Ham United FC (December 29) all on the horizon.

When asked about the possibility of Amara Nallo and James Norris stepping into a Reds defence without the injured Ibrahima Konaté, Conor Bradley and Kostas Tsimikas - as well as the suspended Andy Robertson - Slot spoke about having a depth of young talent at his disposal.

“It's very positive,” Slot explained, regarding his impression of those looking to break through.

“You talk about [Nallo and Norris] now but I think we have a few others that have made a good impact in our training sessions until now.

“We have also used them, like Trey [Nyoni] has been used already in the League Cup. I am aware of the fact that we have only four defenders available and probably the ones that have started a lot of times will not play 90 minutes for sure and maybe not even at all.

“So, it's going to be either Academy players that are going to get playing time or it's going to be players that nobody would expect to see in the last line that are going to play in the last line tomorrow.”

Federico Chiesa will also play at some stage, having missed the majority of his first season as an LFC player so far through injury, but Slot would not confirm whether the Italian would start.

“It's definitely a moment where he can get minutes. The amount of minutes is a question mark,” added the Dutchman.

“You cannot expect from him to play 90, I think, especially at his level, where the intensity is so high, because he has been out for five or six months now.

“But if he has a good training session he will make minutes, but it's going to be a game where not all of our starters will start, so we have to manage minutes.

“If we want to use a few starters not for 90 minutes, we have to balance. I can only make five substitutions. So the ones that make minutes and go off maybe at half-time can't be more than five because you can only make five substitutions.

“Federico will make minutes tomorrow, whether he starts, comes in or plays the second half, that's something we have to make a decision about during this day.”

Diogo Jota will not start, however, having felt some discomfort after scoring the vital equaliser against Fulham FC on Saturday, but may be given some time from the bench as he builds up his rhythm before the busy Christmas schedule.

LFC remain top of the Premier League table going into the festive period, two points ahead of Chelsea FC with a game in hand.

Cody Gakpo, meanwhile, was also on the scoresheet against Marco Silva’s side and while the attacker was disappointed not to leave Anfield with all three points, he was pleased with how he and his teammates coped with Robertson’s early red card.

“Sometimes it happens but today it didn’t, so it was a little bit unlucky in the last pass or in the finishing,” insisted Gakpo.

“As a team we showed the character we have that we could make it [a draw]. Hopefully it will never come that we are down with 10 men, but if it comes we know we can win.”

Gakpo also explained how Slot’s half-time instructions turned things around, with the home side trailing going into the break.

“It was [about] a small tactical shift. It was about when we had the ball and didn’t have the ball. But mostly it was about the intensity and trying to get the crowd behind us like they always do and go for the goal. It happened. I think we did a good job to put that much energy in the game and the crowd helped us a lot.”

Finally, Mohamed Salah’s assist for Gakpo’s equaliser against the Cottagers was his 100th for Liverpool Football Club.

Our No.11 has already long secured his standing as one of the club’s all-time great players, yet keeps breaking records with the same zeal he showed when he first joined the club from Roma in 2017.

Salah’s 13th assist of the season came on his 372nd appearance for the Reds, and was his eighth for Gakpo – the 32-year-old has only created more goals for Sadio Mané (17) and Roberto Firmino (14) in his time on Merseyside.

The Egyptian is, of course, also joint top of the Premier League scoring charts with Erling Haaland on 13 goals.