Arne Slot hinted at squad rotation when Liverpool face Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League on Wednesday, suggesting three players could be set to return to the starting line-up.
The Reds’ manager has named an unchanged XI for his team’s last two matches either side of the recent international break, but something evidently is yet to click with the current set-up as it resulted in another pair of crushing Premier League defeats at the hands of Chelsea and Manchester United.
With Liverpool’s losing streak now standing at four matches in all competitions heading into Wednesday’s outing in Germany, Slot could be set to recall three of his newest signings who arrived at Anfield from the Bundesliga just this summer.
Hugo Ekitike, Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong all started Liverpool’s previous Champions League outing - last month’s loss at Galatasaray - but have only featured from the bench since then.
Alexander Isak and Cody Gakpo have been preferred to Ekitike up top and on the left wing, Dominik Szoboszlai has returned to attacking midfield in place of Wirtz, and Frimpong looks to have fallen behind Conor Bradley in the right-back pecking order.
However, in his pre-match comments on Tuesday, Slot spoke of a “special” moment for the trio upon their return to Germany.
"It's always special for every player if you go to one of your former clubs, especially if you did really well,” he said.
“In [Ekitike’s] situation, he did so well that I think not only he likes to go back over there, I think the fans over there like to see him as well for what he did for the club, because he was part of the team that brought them to the Champions League. Special for him.
Slot continued: “Special for Florian [Wirtz] as well to go back to Germany and play there. Special for Jeremie Frimpong because he was also, like Florian and like Hugo, so successful in Germany. For the three of them, it's nice to play in Germany again.”
Just “playing” in Germany again doesn’t guarantee any of the three players a start on Wednesday, of course, with all of the direct competitors for their favoured positions - including Szoboszlai in Frimpong’s case - also fit and available for selection.
Still, Slot discussed how it would be a “smart” move to use his squad given games are now coming thick and fast.
"'Rotate' always comes across as if, 'Oh, let someone else play a little bit as well’,” he said. “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.
Slot added: “We will use a lot of players again tomorrow, as we will on Saturday [against Brentford in the Premier League]. We have more than 11 players that can start a game of football for us - that's why we've done that until now multiple times, and we might do this tomorrow as well.”
The Dutch manager also suggested that the injury-enforced absence of Ryan Gravenberch is another factor that could influence his team selection in Frankfurt.
“[It] might mean something for others as well, because [Gravenberch] has such a particular quality in our squad [by] always protecting our back four,” he mused.
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