NewsArne Slot on Eintracht Frankfurt challenge, Hugo Ekitike return and line-up plans

The Reds meet the Bundesliga side in Germany for matchday three and will be aiming to halt a run of defeats that extended to four with a 2-1 loss against Manchester United at the weekend.

Slot and his players trained on Merseyside on Tuesday before flying out to Frankfurt, with their journey being undertaken slightly later than planned due to technical issues with their aircraft.

Ahead of the trip, the head coach previewed the encounter with Liverpoolfc.com - read the interview below...

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Arne, firstly, it has been a late change of plans for travelling out to Germany. But would you be hopeful that would not impact the build-up to tomorrow's game?

No, it will not impact the build-up to tomorrow's game. We have trained over here at the AXA. Normally we would have gone to Frankfurt a few hours earlier, now we are a few hours later. But, no, that can never be an excuse for the game tomorrow.

We have had a win and a defeat so far in the Champions League this season, so how important will it be to get something here given the amount of competition for positions there is going to be in this new league phase?

Yeah, I can come up with a few more reasons why it is important to get a result tomorrow as well. But every time you play a game in a Liverpool shirt, the aim is to win that game of football. Now we play Frankfurt away, which is maybe a bit similar to Galatasaray, a stadium where the fans will be really loud. So, apart from the quality Frankfurt have, this is something we have to take into account as well. But our players are used to playing in these circumstances. But a challenge, as it always is when you play Champions League.

And of course a challenge as well given what happened on Sunday and the recent run of form. Does that strengthen the desire to obviously get back to positive results?

Yeah, it should, but like I said before the United game, it should not matter if we win or lose a game of football for the next one. The aim if you play for Liverpool, if you wear this shirt, is to win every single game. So, if we win seven in a row, how we started the season, then we want to win the next three. We didn't. Now we've lost the last four. So now, of course we want to see Liverpool winning again. But that is not different when you lost four in a row or you won four in a row - it is just what is expected of you if you play for Liverpool.

You mentioned Frankfurt and the atmosphere there. What do you expect from them as a team? They have had a good few seasons and were third in the Bundesliga last season...

Yeah, definitely. I don't think they played regularly in the Champions League but last season they were there in the Europa League and came quite far. I remember they played Tottenham and it was a very equal 180 minutes, maybe even longer, I'm not too sure if it went to extra-time. I think it did actually. That tells you it's a good team, it's a strong team that has done very well in the Bundesliga and in Europe.

Even this season when they beat Galatasaray 5-1, we definitely need to be warned by that because, as we all know, we lost against Galatasaray 1-0. You never can compare results to each other but anyway it's still a team that impressed in their first home game. Faced some difficulties away from home against Atletico Madrid [but] they are not the only team that faced difficulties if they played Atletico Madrid in their stadium. So, a good team, good individuals, well managed by a manager that is already there quite long. So, a nice game to look forward to.

And in particular for one of our players, Hugo Ekitike, who joined us from Frankfurt. A special night for him...

Yeah, I think it must be. It's always special for every player if you go to one of your former clubs, especially if you did really well. But even if you didn't perform really well, it's always nice to see the people that you worked with again. But in his situation, he did so well that I think not only he likes to go back over there, I think the fans over there like to see him as well for what he did for the club, because he was part of the team that brought them to the Champions League. Special for him. Special for Florian [Wirtz] as well to go back to Germany and play there. Special for Jeremie Frimpong because he was also, like Florian and like Hugo, so successful in Germany. For the three of them it's nice to play in Germany again.

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You mentioned on Sunday that it's a tight schedule this week with Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday games. Will that mean you might look to rotate the squad a little bit for this game?

'Rotate' always comes across as if, 'Oh, let someone else play a little bit as well.' But I said many times, we have a lot of good players and I can use them all. If you play three games in seven days, it would maybe be smart to use them all as well. That's why, also because we were 1-0 down, but also because we need to use the squad, we made three substitutions after 55 minutes against United. We will use a lot of players again tomorrow, as we will on Saturday. It is then a certain rotation but 'rotation' could also come across as 'We are good enough to play a few others.' No, no, no - we have more than 11 players that can start a game of football for us and that's why we've done that until now multiple times. And we might do this tomorrow as well.