Arne Slot has responded in brutally honest fashion when facing a question over Federico Chiesa and Harvey Elliott‘s lack of game time for Liverpool.
One of the characteristics of Slot’s first season at Liverpool has been his insistence on sticking with a steady starting XI, rarely making too many changes between Premier League games.
This trait has left some players with little chance to make an impression, though.
When it was acknowledged that Chiesa and Elliott have a tough job competing with Mo Salah and Dominik Szoboszlai, Slot responded to media including the Liverpool Echo: “Yeah, that is my answer.
“They (Salah and Szoboszlai) have done well and they have never let the team or the fans or me or their teammates down.
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“They have always shown up and the final wasn’t our best game but I cannot say they didn’t show up but it was not our best game.
“And for all the other games I think no one can say that these players didn’t perform – Szoboszlai, Mo Salah and all the others.
“It is not to say that if you don’t play someone, you don’t trust them. I do, but probably I find the other ones a bit better otherwise I would make a different choice, or they fit better in the team.”
While we should mention that English is of course Slot’s second language, to simply say he finds players to be “better” than others is something not heard too often from managers.
Despite comment being surprising, his opinion is hard to argue with. Salah has obviously been a better player than Chiesa, while Szoboszlai is better, as an athlete at least, than Elliott.
This doesn’t mean the others should be cast aside, though.
Elliott’s game time has been reduced dramatically from last season when he played nearly 2800 minutes. This time around he is on just 583, though did miss much of September to November as he fractured his foot.
Slot continued: “Mo has certain qualities and Dom has certain qualities and I think these qualities help each other.
“Whereas with other players, it is a bit more difficult. That is what makes a team. I cannot play with 11 Mo Salahs and I cannot play with 11 Dominik Szoboszlais.”
While the coach’s assertions may be true about the pair gelling together, the criticism he has faced, though relatively minor in the context of his brilliant overall impression, has been that he hasn’t rotated often enough.
This season, the Reds seem to be tiring in a similar manner to last year, and it is arguably the main reason they lost the Carabao Cup final to Newcastle who were immensely more energetic at Wembley.
Keeping fringe players fresh over the course of a campaign is important for Liverpool if they want to compete on all fronts rather than just the league.
While Liverpool will almost certainly end the season with the ultimate domestic prize, Slot will have also learnt plenty to take into the future.
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