Arne Slot has hinted at changes to his Liverpool side for tomorrow’s home game with Southampton – but insisted they won’t be made with the return game against Paris Saint-Germain in mind.
Liverpool secured a hugely fortunate 1-0 win at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday night thanks to a stunning performance from goalkeeper Alisson and substitute Harvey Elliott’s late strike.
They meet again in the second leg of their Champions League, round of 16 tie on Tuesday, giving Slot a headache as they look to maintain their 13-point lead at the top of the Premier League and keep players fresh.
Changes expected for Liverpool against lowly Saints
The likes of Elliott, Darwin Nunez, Curtis Jones and Kostas Tsimikas could well come in but Slot insists that does not mean they would be treating the rock-bottom Saints lightly.
“The one against Southampton is the most important” ‼️
Arne Slot says future matches against PSG and Newcastle will not impact his team selection for Southampton 🔴 pic.twitter.com/XcawszAgdN
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) March 7, 2025
He said: “If I make the choice to play other players that is because I think that’s the biggest chance to win the game tomorrow and not because I want to rest them for the game against PSG.
“If there was three, four, five days in between the last game and this one I would have probably started the same 11 again, even if there was only two days in between for the next one.
“Since there is only two days in between and we had to fight really hard and it’s not the first game after being out for three or four weeks, it’s probably the 50th game in three months – I don’t know how many – so you take that into account but you take the quality from the team you face, you take the form of the players, how fit they are, which players fit best together.”
Everyone needs a bit of luck – Slot
Slot admitted the Reds rode their luck in the French capital but insisted it was impossible to play well in every game given the schedule, which includes next Sunday’s EFL Cup final against Newcastle.
He added: ”I would say we weren’t a little bit lucky, we were really lucky but as Michael Jordan once said ‘the harder you work the more luck you have’ and this is the biggest compliment you have to give the players.
“They have worked incredibly hard and I think the second half we didn’t control ball possession, not the dominant team at all but we controlled them better than in the first half.
“If you want to win something, if it’s the Premier League or the League Cup, the Champions League or the FA Cup, you need to have once in a while, a game where you don’t play your best football and you are lucky, which is maybe not luck if you work as hard as we do, to get away with a result.
“There are no teams that play 38 games that play only good football. Real Madrid is one of the best examples of that, they also find a way to win a game if the other team is better than them.
“Our full focus is now on Southampton, the first of three finals to be played in the upcoming week.”
Liverpool boss lauds amazing Alisson
Slot also paid tribute to Brazil international Alisson, who was sensational against PSG.
“I think to become the best goalkeeper in the world you sometimes need to make saves others wouldn’t make,” he said. “I think he made one or two on Wednesday. He had two world-class saves in big moments for us.”
Cody Gakpo missed out against PSG due to an ankle problem and he remains a doubt for the weekend.
“He didn’t train yesterday so let’s see if he can train with us today,” said Slot. “Again, close call. It’s not a long-term injury but he still had a bit of pain yesterday so he was not able to train.”
