Arne Slot has said he is not expecting his touchline ban to hugely impact his Liverpool team against Newcastle United on Wednesday night.
It was announced just hours before the game that Slot will not be able to take his seat on the bench as usual for the Newcastle match and the upcoming fixture against Southampton next month.
Like Slot, assistant Sipke Hulshoff is also suspended following the red cards the pair received against Everton two weeks ago, meaning assistant John Heitinga will be the man delivering instructions on Wednesday night.
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But Slot, who will watch from the stands, thinks he will still be able to deliver messages to his team.
“The good thing is that you can be there pre-match and half-time but, of course, ideally I would have been on the line but it’s not like this,” the Liverpool boss told TNT Sports before the game. “I cannot be on the pitch also when I’m on the line. The best way to influence the team is before and at half-time. But of course it’s not ideal.
“I will sit there with the video analyst,” the Dutchman added, while confirming he heard the news on Tuesday. “I have a great view and there is the video footage in front of me as well and we will communicate with the video analyst I assume, with the bench whenever we need.
“But it also clear that John is there and is working with us for a few months now so I have all the confidence he will do and say the right things as I would do when I was there.
“The players miss me on the line so let’s hope the fans can be my voice tonight to help the team tonight.”
Slot also explained the reasoning behind his decision to drop Andy Robertson and Curtis Jones against Newcastle in place of Kostas Tsmikas and Diogo Jota.
"I said before the City game that Diogo wasn’t fully recovered and that was the reason why he didn’t play. Now he is fully recovered because I didn’t play him at all. He is back to being a no.9.
"Andy Robertson has played many games and he was also included in the team against PSV Eindhoven so I think he played seven or eight starts in three weeks. That’s why we chose Kostas for tonight."
