Arne Slot has been speaking about how his injury and suspension-hit Liverpool team could line-up in the Carabao Cup quarter-final at Southampton

Arne Slot has offered a cryptic hint about how he plans to solve Liverpool’s defensive crisis against Southampton on Wednesday. The Reds are down to their last four senior defenders after Andy Robertson was sent off against Fulham on Saturday.

Slot confirmed that Kostas Tsimikas will make his return to training on Tuesday, though he is unlikely to start against the Saints given he has been out since the November international break with an ankle injury.

However, the Liverpool head coach suggested he would not necessarily start the likes of Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold at St. Mary’s and could instead turn to the club’s academy or field players out of their favoured positions when selecting his back four for the Carabao Cup quarter-final.

“You talk about these two now,” Slot said, referring to academy defenders Amara Nallo and James Norris, who were both left out of the Liverpool Under-21s squad that faced Crystal Palace on Monday. “But I think we have a few others who have made a good impact in our training sessions until now.

“We have also used them – Trey (Nyoni) has been used already in the League Cup.

“I am aware of the fact that we only have 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.

“It’s going to be either academy players who are going to get playing time or it’s going to be players who nobody would expect to see playing in the last line that are going to play in the last line tomorrow.”

Slot also confirmed that Federico Chiesa is set to feature against Southampton following his return from injury, but stopped short of revealing if the Italy international forward was fit enough to start given the fact that he has not played for Liverpool since September.

“It’s definitely a moment where he (Chiesa) can get minutes,” the Reds boss confirmed. “The amount of minutes is a question mark.

“You cannot expect him to play 90, especially not at this level where the intensity is so high because he has been out for five or six months now. But he will, if he has a good training session, he will get minutes.

“But it’s going to be a game where not all of our starters will start so we have to manage minutes. If we want to use a few starters, it will not be for 90 minutes, so we have to balance.

“I can only make five substitutions. The ones that get minutes and go off, maybe at half-time, can’t be more than five as you can only make five substitutions.

“He will make minutes, Federico, tomorrow. If he starts or comes in to play the second half, that’s something we have to make a decision about during today.”

Meanwhile, Slot confirmed that Caoimhin Kelleher would return in goal in place of Caoimhin Kelleher against Southampton and also suggested that Wataru Endo would start in midfield.

“That for me is one of the positives about the League Cup because, like you have seen until now, we haven’t played with many starters yet,” he said. “So it’s mostly been a game where the ones that haven’t played that much started the game.

“And that’s really important for the likes of Wata Endo for example. He hasn’t played that much but, fortunately for us, he plays for his national team.

Slot continued: “Yes, you can (expect Kelleher to come back in). It’s one of the most difficult jobs in football if the first goalkeeper is always available, because you work for the whole season and you hardly ever have a chance to play because you normally don’t come in 10 or 15 minutes before the end.

“He’s, unfortunately for us but good for him, already played quite a lot of minutes. So I think if we make a list of players of the amount of minutes, there will be players that have far less playing time than him.

“I think he can look back on the first half of the season for himself as a positive first half of the season. We as a club, of course, hope that all players will be available for the second half of the season so he will not make the amount of minutes that he made in the first half.

“But we are really fortunate to have such a great second goalkeeper, that, if we need him, he is able to do as well as he did.”