Arne Slot and the Question of Rotation

Arne Slot is renowned for keeping his players available but does he keep them fresh enough when it comes to a cup final crunch?

The Carabao Cup final concluded a run of nine games in 33 days for Liverpool. Their campaign will now finish with nine fixtures across 54 days.

If the recent match load doesn’t sound too onerous, don’t forget the Reds had a week off within that period. A run of five league games in 15 days was later followed by four (plus half an hour of extra time) in 12 across three competitions.

Two intensive bursts of intense games which saw five players start every match, with a further three men only out of the line-up once. The starting XI was very settled.

The question is whether it was too settled. Have the key men been ground into the dirt? Head coach Arne Slot would argue that he rotated within games, as only six outfield players completed more than 80 per cent of the minutes across the last nine fixtures:

Liverpool Player Minutes Across The Last Nine Games

The Dutchman’s excellent record for player availability with Feyenoord will justify the approach as far as he is concerned. Available and sharp aren’t necessarily the same thing though. It has been the bit-part players keeping the Reds’ offence afloat in recent weeks.

The only Liverpool starter to score a non-penalty goal in the previous four games was Darwin Núñez, who netted during his sole inclusion in the starting XI in the last nine matches. He also assisted a goal for fellow substitute Harvey Elliott in Paris, who in turn later set up consistent bench warmer Federico Chiesa for a Carabao consolation.

The likes of Cody Gakpo and Diogo Jota have not been justifying the more frequent opportunities they have been afforded. Money in the bank from past performances cannot last for ever.

People laboured the cliche that Newcastle won at Wembley because they wanted it more. It’s ‘Proper Football Man’ talk, with walking telegraph pole Dan Burn the human incarnation of PFM. As absurd as ‘wanting it more’ is as an explanation, it’s also too simplistic to look at the minutes in the players’ legs, an area in which the Magpies demonstrably had an advantage. Even so, should Slot have done more to combat this imbalance for a showcase occasion?