Sunday's 1-0 loss at Home Park was humiliating for the Reds, but the Dutchman's decision to rest his star men was the correct call
The post-match narrative at Plymouth was entirely predictable. As soon as the full-time whistle blew at Home Park, Arne Slot stood accused of disrespecting the FA Cup.
The argument was that the Dutchman had made the first serious misstep since taking charge of Liverpool last summer by making 10 changes to the side that had routed Tottenham on Thursday to seal a place in the Carabao Cup final.
Was Slot's selection the key contributing factor to one of the biggest shocks in FA Cup history, in terms of form, league position and disparity in wealth? Absolutely. But the idea that he was wrong to ring the changes for what's long since become a second-tier tournament for top teams was utterly ludicrous – especially with Liverpool perfectly placed to win far more prestigious prizes this season.
AFP'Hardly created anything at all'
For starters, Slot was entirely entitled to expect the team he picked to face Plymouth Argyle to win the game. There were seven full internationals in the starting line-up and it was the majority of those players that let Liverpool down – not youngsters such as Trey Nyoni and James McConnell.
"Their goalkeeper made one or two good saves in the end," Slot said afterwards, "but we hardly created anything at all." And that was utterly unforgivable, given the visitors fielded a front three of Luis Diaz, Diogo Jota and Federico Chiesa – all of whom were atrocious on the day.
It's also very fair to say that neither Harvey Elliott nor Jarell Quansah advanced their respective causes for more regular game time with error-strewn displays, while the early loss of Joe Gomez to injury was extremely worrying as Liverpool are not exactly well stock in the centre of defence.
As Slot acknowledged, the one positive was that the players kept fighting until the end, but the overall performance was dismal and the Reds could have no complaints about being dumped out of the FA Cup by the team presently propping up the Championship – which was obviously an embarrassment for the club and a major disappointment for those that had been getting giddy about another quadruple bid.
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However, the strain of still competing on four fronts going into the spring has twice taken a heavy toll on Liverpool, in 2022 and 2024, when they ended up frustratingly failing to win either of their two primary targets: the Premier League and the Champions League. Mental and physical fatigue were the main reasons why.
Even just looking at last season alone, former Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp admitted that the shock FA Cup quarter-final loss to struggling rivals Manchester United was the first time he had seen his team "struggling" and losing a tie that they really should have won felt like a "catastrophe" from which they never really recovered.
Sunday's exit was undoubtedly even more unexpected than that loss at Old Trafford, but it's highly unlikely to have anything like the same impact on the squad. On the contrary, it should actually prove a blessing in disguise.
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Liverpool were meant to be rewarded with two free midweeks in February after progressing directly to the last 16 of the Champions League by finishing top of the league-phase table. However, they must play Everton in a massive Merseyside derby on Wednesday – the last ever at Goodison Park – because the original game on December 7 had to be postponed because of adverse weather conditions caused by Storm Darragh.
Even more worryingly, Liverpool's progression to the Carabao Cup final on March 16 has resulted in their tricky trip to Aston Villa being brought forward to Wednesday week – just four days before the massive meeting with Manchester City at the Etihad. Three days after taking on Pep Guardiola's men, the Reds round out the month with another tough league match, against top-four hopefuls Newcastle at Anfield.
All of sudden, then, February has become fraught with danger for Slot and his title-chasing team, making his decision to rotate against Plymouth a non-brainer – for two reasons.
AFPReserves 'need some rhythm'
As Slot pointed out, the mere fact that so many of Liverpool's second string struggled so badly against Plymouth underlined just how badly they required a run-out.
"These players need some rhythm as well," the former Feyenoord coach pointed out. "For them to be ready in the upcoming months, they need game time, and you saw today that some of these players really need games like this to be ready for the last three months of the season."
Slot is spot on. Liverpool's squad is strong, but it's going to be pushed to the limit in the coming months and the likes of Mohamed Salah can't always be relied upon to prove decisive. Other players are going to have to step up at certain moments and they simply have to be match sharp in order to do so.
