Southampton v Liverpool: Arne Slot targets glory on all fronts ahead of League Cup tie

Premier League leaders face Saints for place in last four as they look to retain trophy

Liverpool manager Arne Slot during the Premier League match against Fulham. EPA

Arne Slot says Liverpool have the depth to fight on all fronts as he prepares to rest some star names for their League Cup quarter-final against Southampton on Wednesday night.

The Reds are top of the Premier League and the Uefa Champions League, with 19 wins in 23 games in all competitions so far. Slot said at his pre-match press conference that it was "normal for Liverpool to be fighting for every trophy and to be for a long time in every cup".

"This happened last season when this club won this competition," he said. "So I am not surprised that with the quality we have we are competing at this moment for these three trophies, and the fourth one [the FA Cup] is starting in January."

The Dutch manager, short of fit defenders, is set to rotate his squad as he plans for a trip to Tottenham in the Premier League at the weekend.

He does not expect forward Diogo Jota, who scored as a substitute on his return from injury against Fulham, to be fit enough to start but Federico Chiesa could get an opportunity to impress for the first time since September.

Caoimhin Kelleher will be back in goal, having impressed while deputising for Alisson Becker during his injury lay-off, and defender Kostas Tsimikas is nearing a return.

"I'm 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," said Slot.

"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."

Slot must sit in the stands for Wednesday's match after collecting a third booking of the season against Fulham. The former Feyenoord boss is calmer on the sidelines than his predecessor Jurgen Klopp but admitted he has "fire" inside him.

"I don't always think you have to show it to have that fire," he said. "I think it's clear that if you work at a club like this or around the world at a top club you do have this fire inside you that you want to win every game."

Southampton go into the game without a permanent manager having sacked Russell Martin this week. Martin led Saints to promotion to the Premier League but had taken just five points from 16 league games when the axe fell.

Former Denmark boss Kasper Hjulmand has emerged as a contender to replace Martin. He is currently unemployed after leaving his position as Danish national team manager meaning he is free to take over as soon as possible.

The favourite remains Sheffield Wednesday's German coach Danny Rohl.

Rohl spent eight months at the club in 2019 as assistant manager to Ralph Hasenhuttl before joining Bayern Munich as an assistant coach to Hansi Flick.

The 35 year old took charge at Hillsborough in October 2023 with the club looking doomed to relegation but kept them up with wins over Blackburn, West Brom and Sunderland in their final three games of the season.