Arne Slot hinted that he will change Liverpool’s side against Eintracht Frankfurt, as he sought to redefine the term ‘rotation’.
Having lost four games in a row, supporters are expecting Slot to make certain changes to his team, dropping out-of-form figures such as Alexis Mac Allister and possibly even Mo Salah.
While we mightn’t see wholesale changes against Frankfurt, the head coach has hinted that we can expect some rotation, though made sure to emphasise that this wasn’t a case of weakening the team.
“‘Rotate’ always comes across as if, ‘Oh, let someone else play a little bit as well’,” Slot said on Tuesday evening.
“But I said many times, we have a lot of good players and I can use them all. If you play three games in seven days, it would maybe be smart to use them all as well.
“That’s why, also because we were 1-0 down, but also because we need to use the squad, we made three substitutions after 55 minutes against United.
“We will use a lot of players again tomorrow, as we will on Saturday. It is then a certain rotation but ‘rotation’ could also come across as ‘We are good enough to play a few others.’
“No, no, no – we have more than 11 players that can start a game of football for us and that’s why we’ve done that until now multiple times. And we might do this tomorrow as well.”
How will Liverpool line up against Eintracht Frankfurt?
• READ: Liverpool lineups vs. Frankfurt with full-back swap and Mo Salah dropped
By Joanna Durkan
With Ryan Gravenberch out due to an ankle injury, it likely means Curtis Jones will take his position in midfield with Dominik Szoboszlai to sit alongside the Scouser behind the more advanced Florian Wirtz.
Virgil van Dijk is the first name on the teamsheet, and you can almost guarantee he starts next to Ibrahima Konate, with changes in defence instead made at full-back.
Jeremie Frimpong and Andy Robertson are strong candidates to replace Conor Bradley and Milos Kerkez, respectively, in a return to the back four that started against Atletico Madrid.
There is an argument to drop Salah, but he has more trust from Slot than Federico Chiesa, for example, with Cody Gakpo and the returning Hugo Ekitike likely to make up the front three.
Predicted XI: Mamardashvili; Frimpong, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson; Jones, Szoboszlai; Salah, Wirtz, Gakpo; Ekitike
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