Liverpool faces PSV in the Champions League on Wednesday night.

And with Liverpool sitting pretty at the top of the table, having won every game so far and qualified to the round of 16 (bypassing the round of 32), Arne Slot has decided to rest some key men. In fact the Reds boss is leaving behind 12 first team players in total.

Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah, Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ibrahima Konate, Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai, Luis Diaz, Joe Gomez, Diogo Jota and Curtis Jones have all been left behind for the trip to the Netherlands. And with Liverpool in a Premier League title race that seems a wise call from Slot.

Explaining his decision and more, here's everything Slot said...

READ MORE: Arne Slot clarifies PSV squad selection and outlines plan for 12 Liverpool players left behind

READ MORE: Cody Gakpo lifts lid on Arne Slot talks after surprise Liverpool decision ahead of PSV

Being back in Netherlands

"Yeah, of course. I’m happy in England, I’m happy in Liverpool with the team and the training ground, and everything that comes with that. I’ve had a great time here in Holland, football-wise but definitely in my private life as well, so it’s always nice to be back. Not at the club I’m supporting, but nice to be back and speak a bit of Dutch once in a while as well!"

On dropping 12 players

"They don’t need to prove themselves, we know what the quality is for the players that are going to play tomorrow. We are playing, like all the teams in Europe, many, many, many games and these players are ready. All the ones that are left behind could have played tomorrow but for the long term – so, it doesn’t tell you anything about the short term, doesn’t tell us anything about Saturday’s game – but for the long term, if you look back at our season, it has been almost every time after three or four or five weeks we gave them the break during the week when there was a League Cup or an FA Cup [game], if there was a moment for them to get some freshness back we have always done that.

"It took me a while to understand this new [Champions League] format. I always say when I think I’m 100 percent sure, I use ‘99.9’ but now I can say I’m 100 percent sure that it doesn’t matter at all if we end up one or two [in the table] because we will play 14, 15, 16, 17 and then in the end it’s a draw [for] which of the teams we are going to face. So, this is a game for us – because we are now No. 1 or No. 2, we cannot drop to No. 3 – that has no importance of result coming to the league table. But a very wise man once said to me, ‘I have never seen anything good coming from losing a football game’ so we are not going into the game tomorrow trying to lose the game, we will do everything we can to try to win it, of course.

"The second thing is that because we mainly start with 13 or 14 players that have shared most of the playing time, the ones that haven’t played a lot it’s very useful for them to have 90 minutes. Because if we do get into injury problems, these players will have a bit of game rhythm then as well. So, it’s a choice that we’ve made for the long term. It doesn’t tell you anything about the results in the short term but definitely it helps us for the long term."

On a plan for those players

"They will be off tomorrow. If it’s possible, we always prefer to have them off three days before the game – that’s not always possible if you play so many games! They will train on Thursday, so a few staff members will go back home earlier on Thursday morning to train with the ones that stayed behind. But they are off tomorrow."

On PSV form

"Of course last season I saw a bit more than this season. And last season they were incredible. This season I haven’t seen that much, I think they’ve dropped a few points more than last season but not that big of a difference. They still scored a lot of goals in a short amount of time. They still have a lot of quality in their squad so if you talk about the team, nothing has changed there."

READ MORE: Real Madrid star issues update after Trent Alexander-Arnold tipped to replace him

READ MORE: Jamie Carragher names 3 Liverpool stars who are 'different players' under Arne Slot

On PSV and Peter Bosz similarities

"I don’t know if we’re exactly similar but there are similarities, as there are with many, many, many coaches. What is definitely a similarity is he wants to have the ball a lot, he doesn’t go to a low block waiting for the other team to make a mistake, he doesn’t let his goalkeeper put the ball on the six-yard line and kick it as far as he can, and he wants to bring the ball out from the back.

"I think for the PSV fans – and I have noticed this when I was here last season – they are really, really, really happy that Peter is here because he doesn’t only bring results, every game he is involved in I think is a joy to watch. It is always positive, it is always eventful, a lot of things happen. I think the fans here in Eindhoven are very happy – not only because he won the league, but mainly also because of his playing style. I know we are mainly judged about results, but I would hope there comes a time that managers are also judged on their playing style, which is difficult because almost everyone judges us [as] if we win we play well and if we lose we don’t play well."