Arne Slot has dismissed suggestions his second-string squad have to prove themselves at PSV Eindhoven as he explained the decision to rest the majority of his first-team regulars. A total of 12 senior players were left on Merseyside as a youthful 21-man party flew to Holland for the final Champions League opening stage match on Wednesday evening.

With Liverpool already guaranteed a top-two finish and qualification direct to the last 16 - a draw will seal top spot ahead of Barcelona - Alisson Becker, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ibrahima Konate, Virgil van Dijk, Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch, Dominik Szoboszlai, Luis Diaz and Mohamed Salah have all been rested.

Joe Gomez returned to training on Tuesday after a month out but hasn't been considered, while Diogo Jota and Curtis Jones remain sidelined.

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It means the likes of Caoimhin Kelleher, Conor Bradley, Jarell Quansah, Tyler Morton, Wataru Endo and Harvey Elliott are expected to be in the line-up, with forward Federico Chiesa poised for his first start since September.

But Slot regards the game as something of a free hit for his team and believes the new-look Champions League format makes the result irrelevant for Liverpool, although PSV have still to secure their place in the play-offs at the very least.

"The players don’t need to prove themselves," said the Reds boss. "We know what their quality is, but we are playing many, many games and the ones we left behind could have played but we need to think long-term.

"If you look back at our season and the players who play all the time, we always try to give them a break after three, four or five weeks when it’s the League Cup or FA Cup to help them get their freshness back.

"It has taken me a while to understand this new (Champions League) format but I’m now 100% sure it doesn’t matter if you end up first or second because we are guaranteed to play the team that is 15th, 16th, 17th or 18th (in the last 16), and then it’s down to the draw.

"We can’t drop to third. It has no impact on the league table but we will be trying to win. A wise man once said to me he’s never seen anything good come from losing a game.

"Thirteen or 14 players have mostly shared the playing time so it will also be good to get other players into a game-rhythm as well because we will need them if we start to get injuries. The squad is a choice for the long term."

Slot added: "I'm looking at the long-term of the process of group management. It will be strange if the group has the same level as other games.

"When they play in the League Cup they could beat Southampton and Brighton. It wasn't that easy but we did win. (Former PSV forward) Cody Gakpo, I decided to bring him for example. I do think about some sentiments but he didn't play against Lille last week."

And Slot has confirmed the missing players will be given a breather before beginning their preparations for Saturday afternoon's crunch Premier League clash at Bournemouth.

"They will be off," said Slot. "We want our players to be off three days before a game although that is not always possible

"They will train on Thursday so a few staff members will go home earlier (from Eindhoven) to the ones who stayed behind."