Arne Slot stood tall under the Anfield lights, his face calm but filled with focus. The Merseyside derby was over, Liverpool had beaten Everton 2-1, and the red half of the city was celebrating another sweet victory. But as reporters gathered around him, hoping to hear his reflections on the win, the Dutch manager dropped a different kind of bombshell. Instead of simply praising his team or talking about the goals, Slot decided to look ahead. He revealed that when Liverpool begin their Carabao Cup journey on Tuesday night against Southampton, five of his most important players will not be on the pitch.
The news came as a surprise, but for Slot it was not just about resting players, it was about managing a squad that has already been stretched by injuries and relentless fixtures. He made it clear that Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konaté, Mohamed Salah, Ryan Gravenberch, and Dominik Szoboszlai will all sit out the match. These five have been the pillars of Liverpool’s fast start to the new season, carrying the weight of Champions League nights and Premier League battles on their shoulders. But Slot, who is only a few months into his reign, showed again that he is not afraid to make big decisions that some managers would hesitate over.
To understand why this decision carries so much weight, you have to step back and look at the story of Liverpool’s last few weeks. The Reds had just returned from an exhausting Champions League clash in Spain against Atletico Madrid. It was a high-energy game, full of goals, fouls, and moments of drama. Liverpool won 3-2, but it took everything out of them. Three days later, they were thrown into the fiery atmosphere of a Merseyside derby against Everton, a game that always feels like a war more than a football match. Slot changed four players for that clash — bringing in Conor Bradley, Milos Kerkez, Hugo Ekitike, and Alexis Mac Allister — but the spine of the team, led by van Dijk, Konaté, Salah, Gravenberch, and Szoboszlai, remained untouched
Against Everton, Ryan Gravenberch was the standout. He opened the scoring with a smart finish and later turned provider, setting up Hugo Ekitike for his first Liverpool goal. That moment sent the Kop into raptures, the French striker throwing his arms wide as if to say, “I’m here, I belong.” Everton did strike back through Idrissa Gueye in the second half, but Liverpool’s defense, marshalled by van Dijk and Konaté, held strong. Salah kept pushing, Szoboszlai ran tirelessly, and when the final whistle blew, Liverpool had their fifth straight win of the season.
But celebrations at Anfield quickly turned into questions for Slot. The games are coming thick and fast. Injuries have already piled up — Alexander Isak, who joined Liverpool in a record-breaking transfer, hasn’t trained properly for four months. Mac Allister has been in and out of the squad, his fitness unreliable. The calendar is merciless: Champions League, Premier League, Carabao Cup, and soon the FA Cup and Club World Cup. Slot knows that no matter how much quality his big stars bring, he cannot keep playing them every three days without paying a heavy price.
That is why he didn’t wait for speculation. Instead, he faced the media head-on and declared: “I can tell you now, you won’t be seeing Virgil, Ibou, Mo, Ryan, and Dom on Tuesday.