Arne Slot has defended his youthful team selection after Liverpool were knocked out of the Carabao Cup in a dismal 3-0 defeat to Crystal Palace on Wednesday night.
Palace were able to capitalise on Liverpool’s poor run of form to make it three wins in three against Slot’s men this season, who have now endured six losses from seven in all competitions.
However, it wasn’t the defeat that grabbed the headlines this week but the team selection. Slot opted for an inexperienced starting XI with a bench that boasted just two first-team appearances for Liverpool prior to the kick-off.
The Liverpool manager handed a full debut to Kieran Morrison while Calvin Ramsey played his first senior game for the Reds in over two years.
Amara Nallo also returned to the team for the first time since his red card against PSV, only to suffer the same fate just 12 minutes after coming on.
Slot was criticised afterwards but stands by his decision. He told Mersey Sport Live: “It’s always a blow to lose a game of football, especially if it leads to going out of a competition. But it’s the same selection as I did last season in rounds like this.
“I haven’t changed my opinion about that after the result because, with our starters, we haven’t been able to win a lot from Palace as well.”
Slot’s men were away to Brighton in the equivalent round last season with goals from Cody Gakpo and Luis Díaz proving enough to get past the Seagulls. Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez came off the bench to see out a 3-2 win, suggesting a much stronger squad than Slot chose to face Palace this week.
The Dutchman will field a stronger team to face Aston Villa on Saturday, yet with a growing injury list, the exact personnel is still up in the air.
He said: “Ryan [Gravenberch] trained with us for the first time yesterday and will train with us today, and we will make the call if he is able to start, yes or no.
“The other two [Alexander Isak and Alisson Becker], I am 99.9% sure they won’t be in the squad.”
Despite a bumper transfer window, Liverpool appear to be lacking a level of depth, and additional signings are needed in the upcoming January transfer window.
Slot oversaw the departure of Luis Díaz, Darwin Nunez, Jarell Quansah, Ben Gannon-Doak, Caoimhín Kelleher, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Tyler Morton, Nat Phillips, Harvey Elliott and Konstantinos Tsimikas in the summer but is pleased with his current squad.
He said: “I’m completely happy with the team and the quality that we have. The issue, if you can call it an issue, is that not all of them have had a pre-season or have been injured during the season, so when three or four are injured, you go back to 16 players.
“I am a firm believer that 20/21 players are enough, but you have to keep them fit like we did last season, and we are struggling more to keep them fit for, in my opinion, obvious reasons.”
Liverpool couldn’t have picked a worse time to play Aston Villa. After a dismal one goal in their opening five games, Villa’s season has been revitalised, winning four of their last five in the league. That run included most recently a 2-1 victory, coming from behind against Spurs, as well as stifling Manchester City 1-0 last time out.
Slot joked: “It’s better to do it the way they did it than the way we did it. If you don’t win in the beginning, maybe some people think they don’t have the same team as last season, and then they start to win, and everyone is really positive. With us it’s exactly the opposite.”
He added: “They [Aston Villa] have done very well in the last 7/8 games, and that’s not a surprise, as you could already see that they are a very good team and their playing style is very good.”
