Arne Slot defends team selection after Liverpool suffer shock FA Cup loss to Plymouth Argyle | OneFootball

There have not been many times this season that Arne Slot has been critical of his Liverpool side but Sunday’s shock FA Cup loss to bottom of the Championship Plymouth Argyle was one of them.

Ryan Hardie’s penalty early in the second half secured an unlikely victory for the Pilgrims against the Premier League leaders as they progressed into the fifth round.

Slot fielded a much-changed Liverpool side for the trip down south, having played a full-strength team in Thursday’s Carabao Cup semi-final victory over Spurs.

He had signalled before the game that he was likely to make changes, but the extent of his rotation came as a surprise.

Slot opted for ten changes from that side in total, including youngsters James McConnell and 17-year-old Trey Nyoni in the starting 11 while Virgil Van Dijk, Mo Salah, Ryan Gravenberch, Ibrahima Konate, Alexis Mac Allister, Andy Robertson and Cody Gakpo were all left out of the squad, along with the injured Trent Alexander-Arnold.

But the Liverpool boss insisted that the team he named should have been strong enough to perform much better.

“There was enough quality on the pitch to get a better result than that,” Slot said.

“The way we played, there wasn’t a lot to be happy about.

“The only thing I was happy about was that the boys kept on fighting for 100 minutes and probably the best part of the game was the last ten minutes.”

Hardie converted from the spot after Harvey Elliott was adjudged to have handled the ball in the box, firing low and hard and sending Caoimhin Kelleher the wrong way.

Liverpool looked very much like a team that had not played together before in the first half, unsurprising given many of them had not, and were not helped by being forced into an early reshuffle when Joe Gomez was taken off with an injury to be replaced by youngster Isaac Mabaya.

But Slot’s frustrations are understandable given the Reds had enough attacking quality on the pitch in Luis Diaz, Diogo Jota and Federico Chiesa to have caused Plymouth more problems than they did.

The Liverpool boss’ decision to leave so many star players at home became more questionable after Hardie’s eventual winner, however, with the Reds taking until the closing stages of the game to really look a threat.

Darwin Nunez was the only recognisable senior substitute to enter the field, with Curtis Jones remaining on the bench due to a lack of fitness.

But Slot justified his selection, saying: “The things we do, we do for a reason.

“I said before that we have to play many games now. The upcoming weeks, we have to play two games every single time.

“It’s not only good for them (the star players) to have a week every once in a while where they only play one game, but also the ones that were here today, they need the intensity of a game.”

When Liverpool did eventually threaten, Plymouth were fortunate to remain in front, however. A mix-up at the back between goalkeeper Conor Hazard and his defence presented McConnell with a golden opportunity with the goalkeeper off his line, but the midfielder fired wide of the target much to the relief of the passionate home support.

Hazard then produced a great save to keep out Jota’s effort which looked destined for the top corner.He saved his best moment of the game until the ninth minute of added time though, acrobatically tipping over Nunez’s header moments before the final whistle blew.

Time will tell whether Slot’s decision to give his squad players a chance will pay off in other competitions, but what’s certain is that their quadruple hopes are over.