Girona vs Liverpool: 21 MILLION reasons for Arne Slot’s massive decision tonight

Liverpool’s current run, in which they have to play six games in the span of the next 18 days, threatens to be a bit of a difficult time for the club.

Amid an ongoing injury crisis, contract fiasco and reputation to uphold as the best team in the world, Arne Slot will be having a few sleepless nights wondering how to best manage the fitness of his players.

READ MORE: CONFIRMED Liverpool lineup vs Girona with SURPRISE return

And the games themselves don’t make it any easier - starting tonight with a visit to Girona in the Champions League.

Liverpool are the only side with a 100% record in the competition whilst Girona sit in 30th place. That doesn’t particularly make it ‘easy’ per se, but gives Slot a bit of leeway to play around with who he starts and rests.

That is, until you look at the prize money numbers. Then you realise that Slot has a multi-million pound reason to play his strongest lineup.

Liverpool have £20m on the line in the Champions League

Each team gets around £1.73m for winning a game in the league stage of the competition. That means that the Reds have netted £8.65m so far just for their performances in the competition and have a potential £5.2m still to play for.

Then teams receive an additional £227,000 for each place higher they finish in the 36-team Champions League table. So the team that finishes last (currently Swiss side Young Boys) gets just £227,000, whilst Liverpool’s current first-placed finish would see them net another £8.2m.

Throw in an extra £1.65m for finishing in the top eight of the competition and an eye-watering £9m just for qualifying for the Round of 16 - which teams finishing in the top eight automatically do - and you can see how resting Mo Salah and company might not be Arne Slot’s wisest choice.

Add everything that Liverpool are currently doing together - a win tonight, a first-place finish in the Champions League mega-group, qualifying for the Round of 16 - and the Reds would bolster their books with an additional £20.58m.

For reference, that’s Salah’s current salary for an entire year with a couple million left over, or the combined current salaries of Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold.

With all three of those players embroiled in a contract nightmare currently - as well as potential new deals for Ibrahima Konate and Luis Diaz, alongside approaches for Martin Zubimendi, Omar Marmoush and Milos Kerkez - it goes without saying how vital that money could be for the club.

Hopefully the players enjoyed their unexpected storm-induced rest over the weekend, because they need to be on their best form tonight.

EXCLUSIVE: Liverpool ready to splash the cash on Arne Slot's PERFECT no.10