Liverpool manager Arne Slot has been dealt a harsh lesson in English football, after his side lost 1-0 to Plymouth Argyle in the FA Cup fourth round.
After reaching the League Cup final on Thursday by beating Tottenham Hotspur 4-0 at Anfield, Slot allowed Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk, Cody Gakpo and the rest of his star players a weekend off, confident in the belief that his young side would prove too strong for the Championship’s bottom side. How wrong he was proven.
Instead, what transpired was a pitiful display at Home Park. Liverpool were devoid of ideas, with Euros winner Federico Chiesa unable to get past Tymoteusz Puchacz, Diogo Jota offering little inspiration and Harvey Elliott’s stake for a spot in the starting XI falling flat.
Liverpool boss Arne Slot doesn't regret team selection - but he should
Liverpool certainly needed some extra quality of the bench than the youngsters, such as Trent Kone-Doherty and Isaac Mabaya, they could call upon, with Darwin Nunez and Curtis Jones the only recognised first team players available to Slot who didn’t start the match, and even then the latter didn’t get on the pitch.
The Dutchman doesn’t regret his decision against Plymouth, however, highlighting that the amount of games left in the rest of the season influenced him, as well as the fact he’ll need a fit and firing squad to be on top form.
"No regrets,” Slot said after the game, “because you never know what will happen if we would have played with our starters over here.
“I think we've seen during this season, we've seen a few times already, that it's a game plan, a playing style, which is difficult for our starters, but also for the ones that played today. So, constantly long balls, second balls, long balls, second balls.
"It's difficult for every team. We had it with [Manchester] United at home for example as well. They had a similar playing style going to a very low block [then] kick every ball long, and then we played with our starters.
“I think today also showed why we played with the ones we played with today because these players need game rhythm as well. 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.”
In FourFourTwo’s view, Slot should have rotated his squad a lot better if he wanted certain players fit for other games. Not playing Salah, Van Dijk and the rest for one specific game is too big a risk, and while extra games do place a lot of pressure on certain individuals, managing their workload is part of the manager’s remit if they want to compete on four fronts.
Wolves at home next weekend would prove an opportune time to rest at least one of Salah or Van Dijk, while bringing players off earlier against Spurs would have been smart, too. Hindsight is, of course, a wonderful thing at times, however. If Slot’s plan had worked, then he’d be lauded for the decision. On this occasion, some criticism should be levelled at him.
