Slot defends team selection after 6th loss in 7 games see them crash out of the Carabao Cup against Palace.
Arne Slot defends Liverpool selection but pressure builds after Carabao Cup exit.
After Liverpool’s sixth loss in seven games, Arne Slot acknowledged he is under pressure and stated he had no regrets about fielding a depleted team against Crystal Palace in the Carabao Cup.
With two goals from Ismaïla Sarr and one from Y Ámy Pino, Palace defeated Liverpool for the third time this season to move on to the quarterfinals. Slot’s decision to make ten changes from the Liverpool team that started at Brentford on Saturday, with nine untested young players on the bench, contributed to a comfortable 3-0 victory.
“It’s always a blow to lose a game, especially when it leads to going out of a competition, but it’s the same selection I did last season in these rounds,” said the head coach, who hopes to have Ryan Gravenberch back from injury on Saturday.
“There are many reasons why we’ve lost six out of seven, none of them are good enough to accept losing so many. Liverpool losing that many is always too much. Our performance against Brentford, two days after we played Frankfurt away, I saw a team that struggled with playing three games in seven days.
“In two days, we play Villa and the last time I played a player I thought was ready for that programme was Alexander Isak, but it turns out he wasn’t and went out with an injury.
“In the last round we played Southampton and Giovanni Leoni was injured and we got two yellow cards for Hugo Ekitiké. At this time we have only 15 or 16 [senior] players available and this club always used this competition for their academy players. This felt the right decision and I haven’t changed my opinion after the result. With our starters we haven’t been able to beat Palace as well.”
Slot acknowledged he was under pressure to arrest Liverpool’s slump before the Carabao Cup exit. “I don’t think it’s possible that if you lose five out of six, that losing six out of seven there is even more pressure,” he said. “If you play for Liverpool or manage Liverpool you know the pressure is there. I don’t think it has changed much after this loss.”