Arne Slot defends team selection after Liverpool’s Carabao Cup exit
The Eagles triumphed 3-0 to set up a fifth-round tie with Arsenal, handing Slot’s side a sixth defeat in seven games
Arne Slot defended his decision to make 10 changes as Liverpool were knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Crystal Palace at Anfield.
The Eagles triumphed 3-0 to set up a fifth-round tie with Arsenal, handing Slot’s side a sixth defeat in seven games.
Only Milos Kerkez retained his place from the Brentford loss, with Federico Chiesa, Joe Gomez, Andy Robertson, and Wataru Endo starting alongside youngsters Calvin Ramsay, Trey Nyoni, and debutant Kieran Morrison.
“It is always a blow to lose a game especially to go out of the competition but it is the same selection I did last year in rounds like this,” Arne Slot said.
“There are many reason why we have most six out of seven, none are good enough to accept losing so many.
“At Liverpool losing six of seven is always too much but if I look at our performance against Brentford two days after we played Frankfurt away I saw a team that struggled with playing three games in seven days, which is not a complete surprise when I see the struggle some players have had in pre-season, or coming from different leagues and it is a challenge to play three games in seven days.
“And 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.
“Last time we played against Southampton, Giovanni Leoni, was injured in a game like this and we got two yellow cards for Hugo Ekitike.
“At this time with only 15 or 16 players available, to add that this club always used this competition for their academy players. This felt to me the right decision and I haven’t changed my opinion on that after the result.
“When we played West Ham (last year in the Cup) I don’t think we had Salah on the bench so a year ago I did the same but maybe the line up fell differently.
“I saw Manchester City’s line up and I don’t think they had one starter from the weekend, but if you look at it, it looks like they had 11 starters.
“Maybe it gives a bit of an insight into how big a squad they have. We are only missing four players and I had to have four players under 19.”
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