Arne Slot has explained that he may not always want to rotate, but his team selection has been compromised by the lack of pre-season for several players.

Slot has averaged 3.8 changes per game to his starting lineup so far this season after a summer of significant changes in the dressing room.

Liverpool have yet to gel as a new-look unit and while Slot oversaw seven straight victories to start the campaign, two back-to-back defeats have shone a spotlight on the deficiencies in the side.

Slot has named the same starting lineup only once this season, and that continuity of selection, he says, has been compromised by several players not having a full pre-season under their belt.

“What you see is, and I think I explained this many times, is that there are a few players from us that missed pre-season so you simply cannot play them every single [game],” Slot told reporters.

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“Well, you can but then that could become a risk of players becoming injured.

“We have seen this more and more because the demands go up more and more, and if the demands go up you have to prepare players for these demands.

“That means that it is not always that I want to rotate but sometimes I need to because a player is not ready to play three times 90 minutes in seven or eight days.

“I like my squad so much, but we don’t have 25 or 26 [players], so if we end up with two, three or four injuries, 15 or 16 players, where Rio and Trey are two of these 15 or 16, then need to play almost all the minutes and then things can become complicated.

“But this is a decision we have made together, I completely believe in this, because if you have 25 [players] it’s very hard to manage your squad.

“But as a result of that, with Hugo, Alex, Conor and Mac Allister not having the pre-season a player should have, that also results in the fact that I cannot play them every time.”

Injury stopped Conor Bradley and Alexis Mac Allister from completing the full pre-season schedule, while Alexander Isak‘s summer was well-documented and he needs time to get back up to speed.

None of the players Slot mentioned have completed 90 minutes yet this season and the early need to manage the squad accordingly has not helped with the initial instability, nor for the new signings to settle in.

The hope now will be that Alisson is not ruled out for a lengthy period after pulling up in Istanbul nor Hugo Ekitike after he felt something reaching for a ball late in Tuesday’s defeat.