It’s not often of late that Arne Slot has put a foot wrong with Liverpool, but in making 10 changes to his side to face Plymouth in the FA Cup certainly seemed to backfire on Sunday.
The Reds crashed out of the cup competition as they went down 1-0 to Plymouth Argyle.
It was a shock result as the English Premier League table-toppers were beaten by Plymouth who are bottom of the log on the Championship table.
Of course Liverpool have a number of competitions in which to juggle their squad, as they seek to win just their second league titles in the last 35 years.
Big names missing
Liverpool left out Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah, and Cody Gakpo among a long list of first choice starters for the match.
Slot, however, said he did not rue his decision to field the team he did.
“I think during the season we have seen a few times already that is a gameplan or a style which is difficult for our starters but also for the players who started today. So constantly long balls, second balls. It's difficult for every team,” said Slot after the match.
“Today I think showed why we used these players – because these players need game rhythm as well in the upcoming months, they need game time and you saw today, some of these players need to be like this to be ready for the final few months of the season.”
Despite what may have been perceived as a lack of respect for Plymouth by fielding such an inexperienced team, Slot said the loss would still come as a heavy blow.
“The result is obvious, it was a big disappointment and the way we played, there wasn't a lot to be happy about either. I was happy that the boys kept on fighting for 100 minutes and probably the best part of our game was the final 10 minutes.”