Liverpool boss Arne Slot has leapt to his own defence after a humiliating Carabao Cup exit at the hands of Crystal Palace, but admits his struggling Reds have fallen well below the club’s proud standards.
Ismaila Sarr hit a brace and Yeremy Pino added a third as a much-changed Liverpool side were torn apart 3-0 at Anfield, crashing out of the Cup and extending their nightmare run to six defeats in seven games.
Fans were left fuming, and pundits piled on. Jamie Redknapp blasted the selection as “the wrong team,” accusing Slot of making things “really difficult for himself.”
Slot dropped big names like Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk, making ten changes from the weekend’s game at Brentford and filling his bench with teenagers. But the under-pressure Dutchman insists he had no choice.
“Everyone can have their opinion,” Slot told Sky Sports. “But with only 15 or 16 senior players fit, this was the team I had to pick.”
The manager expressed concerns about injuries ahead of a grueling run of fixtures, with Aston Villa, Real Madrid, and Manchester City all looming before the international break.
“It’s not Liverpool’s standards to lose five or six games like this,” he admitted. “But when you’ve only got one fit right-back, and a few knocks, you can’t take risks.”
Slot pointed out that his bench was packed with youngsters, nine players aged 21 or under with a combined nine senior appearances.
“People think we have 25 top players because of the money spent,” he added. “But the truth is, we’ve got 20 and four are injured.”
The Liverpool boss warned he couldn’t afford to lose any more key men after previous injury setbacks, saying: “If I’d played Virgil or Konaté and one of them got injured, everyone would’ve said, ‘what a stupid choice.’”
As Liverpool’s season threatens to unravel, Slot faces a huge week to steady the ship and convince furious fans that his “rotation” hasn’t wrecked their campaign.
