Slot played a weakened time when the Reds were knocked out by Plymouth last season but the Liverpool manager is keen to avoid a repeat this year
Arne Slot has promised to take the FA Cup seriously as he vowed there will be no repeat of the weakened team who crashed out of the competition at Plymouth last season.
The Liverpool manager said all of the players who were involved in Thursday’s 0-0 draw with Arsenal will be in the squad to face Barnsley at Anfield on Monday, apart from the injured Conor Bradley, and hopes striker Hugo Ekitike will be fit to return.
Slot defended his selection at Home Park last season, when his gamble of leaving many of his regulars on Merseyside backfired as a Plymouth team who would get relegated from the Championship won 1-0.
But then Liverpool were top of the Premier League and had reached the Carabao Cup final and now Slot regards the FA Cup as a greater priority.
He said: “Last season I made the decision that some players needed to rest in the FA Cup because you cannot play every player every single time, but it is obvious that we are not in the League Cup any more and the FA Cup has always been very important for this club.
“Sometimes in a season when you are still competing for the League Cup, the Champions League and the league, with the amounts of players we had last season and we have this season, you have to make choices.
“I can guarantee you that on Monday you will see all the players you see today, maybe with some substitutions, but then they will be on the bench so that is going to be different from last season against Plymouth."
Top scorer Ekitike has missed Liverpool’s last two games with a hamstring problem but Slot will bring the Frenchman back if he can. He said: “We will do everything to have him available on Monday.”
The game will come too soon for Wataru Endo, who is due to resume training soon, and Jayden Danns but Federico Chiesa is set to feature, as Slot insisted he often selects the Italy international, who is of interest to Juventus.
He added: “He said he played more in the recent weeks than he ever did before under me but he is one of the players that could feature in that game, definitely, but Hugo might be back. So let’s see how we might start that game and he is one of the options that I have.”
Category: General Sports
