Arne Slot is set to give Liverpool debuts to goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili and centre-back Giovanni Leoni in Tuesday’s Carabao Cup tie against Southampton.
The defensive duo are likely to be joined in the side by record signing Alexander Isak, with the £125m man being given the chance to open his Liverpool account against the Championship club.
Slot has hinted he could bring in a fresh 11 and has already vowed to rest the outfield players who played 90 minutes against both Atletico Madrid and Everton, in Mohamed Salah, Ryan Gravenberch, Dominik Szoboszlai, Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate.
Goalkeeper Mamardashvili, whose £25m move from Valencia was arranged last summer but who was promptly loaned back to the Spanish club, has been an unused substitute so far this season.
The 18-year-old Italian centre-back Leoni joined for £26m from Parma as a replacement for the sold Jarell Quansah and is also yet to appear for Liverpool.
Slot confirmed he wants to give both minutes along with Isak, who has started one match and was a substitute against Everton on Saturday.
“Yeah, we can go through all of them – Wata Endo and a few more,” he said. “These are the players that need a game and we’re happy that we have one. If we wouldn’t have had one, we probably would have arranged a friendly in this week for these players because they need to play games as well to keep them ready whenever we need them.
“We’ve used quite a lot in the last three games because we thought we needed to keep this energy throughout all the three games – but not all of them. And the few we haven’t used, it’s definitely the perfect moment for them to get playing time. There will be a completely changed line-up.”
However, after spending around £450m this summer, Slot is adamant his rotated team will not be a weak one.
“There’s no trophy we underestimate, we always want to win every trophy we compete for,” he added. “But that’s the good thing about the quality of the squad we have, that we still have a very good team that we can play tomorrow. But we have to think about the long-term as well. If we want to compete in every single trophy then some players need a normal week, which is not playing during the week once in a while as well.”
Teenager Rio Ngumoha is also in contention for just his second Liverpool start and Italy forward Federico Chiesa for only his fifth while the players who were on the bench for the Merseyside derby – including £100m buy Florian Wirtz, fellow summer signing Jeremie Frimpong, vice-captain Andy Robertson, the long-serving Joe Gomez and midfielder Curtis Jones – are other potential starters.
