Arne Slot has doubled down on his calls for English football to help itself by allowing teams to name 23 players in matchday squads.
The Liverpool manager is not quite Jurgen Klopp in terms of his outcries about fixture congestion and a crowded calendar – but Slot believes English clubs should be allowed 12 substitutes.
This, Slot thinks, will allow talented youngsters to have more chances of getting minutes in first teams. When Liverpool were 4-0 up against Tottenham on Thursday night, for example, Slot could have given experience to the teenagers who have impressed him in training.
‘If you are a club that plays so many games, then you have to have 22 or 23 players,’ he said. ‘To go to a game with 20 is no problem, but you want to create something and give academy players a chance once in a while. It’s a big problem for academy players.’
With a fully-fit contingent last Saturday, senior stars Joe Gomez and Federico Chiesa did not make the cut in terms of travelling to the Reds’ fixture at Bournemouth. Youngsters like James McConnell and Trey Nyoni also might have had a chance of making the bench.
Earlier in the week, Slot said: ‘That is one of the only things I don’t understand here in England. So everywhere around the world in Europe as well, when we play the Champions League, we can take 23 players to the game.
Arne Slot has called on the English authorities to introduce 23-man matchday squads
The Liverpool boss believes the change would allow more youngsters to get first-team minutes
‘And we are here in a country where we play the most games in the world – the likes of Arsenal, us, Aston Villa, Chelsea, all the teams that are playing in Europe – and we have the League Cup and the FA Cup over here as well.
‘So we play so, so, so many games, so if you are able to play all these games, then you need a big squad. That seems fair to me and one of the things that is so important for a manager, to pick the first 11 is difficult but to tell someone they are not in the squad makes it harder.
‘So I don’t understand why we don’t go to 23 in this country because this country plays the most games in the world and we only have 20 players that we can take to that game.
‘To leave someone out that works so hard on a daily basis that wants to be involved in the game as well, and not even taking him to the game, that is the hardest decision for me to make, yes.’
