After Crystal Palace eliminated Liverpool from the Carabao Cup at Anfield, Arne Slot justified his decision to make ten changes to a team that had no senior players on the bench.
With a 3-0 victory on Merseyside, the Eagles advanced to the fifth round, where they will face Premier League champions Arsenal. Slot’s Reds have now lost six of their past seven games and will host Aston Villa on Saturday night.
Slot only kept Milos Kerkez from Saturday’s 3-2 loss to Brentford. Wataru Endo and Federico Chiesa, Joe Gomez, and Andy Robertson all started the game, but the head coach also started rookies Calvin Ramsay, Trey Nyoni, and Kieran Morrison.
“It is always a blow to lose a game especially to go out of the competition but it is the same selection I did last year in rounds like this,” Slot stated. “We have about six out of seven for a variety of reasons, and none of them are good enough to tolerate losing so many.
“Losing six straight games is never acceptable at Liverpool, but if I look at our performance against Brentford two days after we played Frankfurt away, I saw a team that struggled to play three games in seven days. This is not surprising at all, given the difficulties some players have faced during preseason or when they come from different leagues.
“And in two days, we play Villa. The last time I played, Alexander Isak was a player I believed was prepared for that program, but he ended up being hurt. Hugo Ekitike received two yellow cards, and Giovanni Leoni was hurt in a similar match the last time we played Southampton. This club always used this competition for its academy players, and at this time, there were only 15 or 16 guys available. I believe that this was the proper choice, and I haven’t changed my mind despite the outcome.
“I believe we didn’t have Salah on the bench when we faced West Ham (in the Cup last year), so I did the same a year ago, though perhaps the lineup was different. I don’t believe Manchester City had a single starter from the weekend, but if you look at their lineup, it appears that they had eleven.
“Perhaps it provides some insight into the size of their team. I have to have four players under the age of 19, and we are just missing four players.”
A replacement for a slot saw Just twelve minutes after his debut, Amara Nallo was sent off for the second time in his Liverpool career after Justin Devenny went down after a clean through. The Reds manager revealed how Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate, two first-team players, tried to cheer up the young defender following the loss.
Slot continued: “It tells me they are wonderful people because Ibou and Virgil went inside right away to talk to him, so I didn’t have to say much. They understand how challenging that situation was.
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