Time for grand plan to finally come together

WITH A FULL WEEK OF REST AND PREPRATION SLOT'S EXPENSIVELY-ASSEMBLED SQUAD NEED TO RETURN TO WINNING WAYS

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F Arne Slot rested his big guns on Wednesday to get them as fully prepared as possible for the visit from Aston Villa, then the gameplan for tonight's fixture has had more time than usual to be formulated this week.

Slot gave nights off to the likes Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Florian Wirtz for the fourth-round tie with Crystal Palace as 10 changes were made in total without a firstteam player on the bench.

It was crystal clear when the team sheet dropped at Anfield on Wednesday night that this weekend's game was being viewed as the most important that was understandable following a sequence of four successive Premier League losses for the champions.

Some have suggested that the meek surrender to Oliver Glasner's Eagles has increased the pressure on an embattled Slot but progress to the fifth round of the least important of the four competitions Liverpool are in this term would offer no protection for the Reds boss if they extend their losing sequence to five tonight.