Press conferenceChiesa, Jota, Kelleher and more: Arne Slot's selection plans for Carabao Cup quarter-final
Arne Slot has outlined his early team selection plans for Wednesday's Carabao Cup quarter-final tie with Southampton.
Diogo Jota, who made a goalscoring return to action as a substitute in Saturday's 2-2 draw with Fulham, will not be considered to start at St Mary's, though Federico Chiesa will be afforded some game time.
Elsewhere, Alisson Becker will make way in goal, with Caoimhin Kelleher returning between the posts for Liverpool.
Slot also discussed the possibility of Academy players getting an opportunity in the tie.
Read on to see what the head coach revealed during his pre-match press conference at the AXA Training Centre on Tuesday morning…
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Watch on YouTubeOn Jota's prospects of being involved...
That is, for me, also the positive thing about the League Cup because like you've seen until now, we haven't played with many starters yet. It's mostly been games where the ones who haven't played that much started the game. That's really important. For the likes of Wata Endo, for example, he hasn't played that much, but fortunately for us he plays for his national team and the few times he can play in the League Cup helps him to keep his rhythm as well.
Diogo would have been definitely one that it was ideal for him to play, but after the [Fulham] game he wasn't completely fit, so he didn't train with us yesterday. Let's see if he can train with us today. Don't expect him to start. Hopefully he can make some minutes, but don't expect him to start tomorrow.
On whether Chiesa will feature...
It's definitely a moment where he can get minutes. The amount of minutes is a question mark. You cannot expect from him to play 90, I think, especially at his level, where the intensity is so high, because he has been out for five or six months now. But if he has a good training session he will make minutes, but it's going to be a game where not all of our starters will start, so we have to manage minutes.
If we want to use a few starters not for 90 minutes, we have to balance. I can only make five substitutions. So the ones that make minutes and go off maybe at half-time can't be more than five because you can only make five substitutions. Federico will make minutes tomorrow, whether he starts, comes in or plays the second half, that's something we have to make a decision about during this day.
On whether 'we can expect' Kelleher to start…
Yes, you can.
On Kelleher's character and temperament as a second-choice goalkeeper…
Yes, I agree with you that it's one of the most difficult jobs in football if the first goalkeeper is always available because then you work for the whole season and you hardly ever have the chance to play because you normally don't come in 10 minutes or 15 minutes before the end [of games]. He, unfortunately for us but good for him, has already made quite a lot of minutes, so I think if you make a list of players with the amount of minutes there will be players that have far less playing time than him.
So, I think he can look back at the first half of the season for himself as a positive first half of the season. We as a club, of course, hope that all players are available in the second half of the season so he will not make the amount of minutes that he did in the first half. But we are really fortunate to have such a great second goalkeeper, that if we need him he is able to do as well as he did.
On whether Academy players such as Amara Nallo and James Norris would be ready to play given the Reds' injury and suspension issues in defence…
It's very positive [his general impression of the club's younger players]. You talk about these two now but I think we have a few others that have made a good impact in our training sessions until now. We have also used them, like Trey [Nyoni] has been used already in the League Cup. I am aware of the fact that we have only four defenders available and probably the ones that have started a lot of times will not play 90 minutes for sure and maybe not even at all. So, it's going to be either Academy players that are going to get playing time or it's going to be players that nobody would expect to see in the last line that are going to play in the last line tomorrow.
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