Arne Slot‘s decision to rotate and rest for the Carabao Cup not only led to Liverpool’s sixth defeat in seven games, but increased the pressure on a decisive run of fixtures to come.
Remove the context of Liverpool’s current run of form and Slot’s 10 changes for the visit of Crystal Palace were not unreasonable.
With Alisson, Giovanni Leoni, Curtis Jones, Jeremie Frimpong, Ryan Gravenberch and Alexander Isak all unavailable, along with both Stefan Bajcetic and Jayden Danns, the usual wholesale rotation was made more difficult.
Liverpool still started the game with six established senior players in Alexis Mac Allister, Federico Chiesa, Milos Kerkez, Wataru Endo, vice-captain Andy Robertson and the club’s longest-serving player Joe Gomez.
Trey Nyoni and Rio Ngumoha are also trusted first-team options while debutant goalkeeper Freddie Woodman is far from inexperienced with 278 competitive appearances under his belt at the age of 28.
Had, say, Leoni and Jones been fit it would have been a decidedly more cohesive second-string side, removing the only two risks on paper in starting Calvin Ramsay for the first time in three years and handing 18-year-old Kieran Morrison his debut.
But the reality is that this Liverpool side was on a hiding to nothing on Wednesday night; once Ismaila Sarr had scored the first of his two first-half goals, defeat was a foregone conclusion for a battling group of players.
A shift to another new system, this time a 3-4-3 with Endo and Robertson both out of position as centre-backs, certainly did not help matters.
It was seemingly a needs-must decision, but one of the main issues was that it increased the workload on the one player retained from Saturday’s 3-2 defeat Brentford, with Kerkez appearing caught in his demanding role as a wing-back.
For Slot, the entire night seemed more of a needs-must situation.
The choice to again decline a pre-match press conference highlighted the Carabao Cup‘s low ranking on the list of priorities and naming a nine-man bench comprised entirely of academy players only underlined that further.
While in years gone by heavily rotated Liverpool sides could scrape through the early rounds of the domestic cups – with perhaps more determination than judgement – there was a sense this time that an early exit had been accepted before kickoff.
Why Slot felt he had to rotate – and name an academy bench
There will have been many of those who dutifully packed out Anfield left feeling shortchanged as they stood in the pouring rain watching an unavoidable 3-0 defeat – and that feeling could be magnified if the narrative doesn’t change soon.
Slot spoke candidly about his decision to rest Giorgi Mamardashvili, Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate, Conor Bradley, Dominik Szoboszlai, Florian Wirtz, Mohamed Salah, Cody Gakpo and Hugo Ekitike after the game.
“If I look at our performance against Brentford, two days after we played Frankfurt away, I saw there a team that maybe struggled with playing three games in seven days,” he told reporters in his post-match press conference.
He added: “In two days we play Villa and the last time I played a player that we thought was ready for that programme, but it turned out maybe he wasn’t, was Alexander Isak and he went out with an injury.
“Last time [in this competition] we played Southampton, Giovanni Leoni went out with an injury in a game like this and we got a red card for Hugo Ekitike.
“I think in this moment in time, with only 15 or 16 players available, it felt to me that this was the right decision and I haven’t changed my opinion about that after the result.”
Later in his press conference Slot hinted at an issue with Liverpool’s squad depth after a summer in which eight first-team players were sold and four more were loaned out, along with the tragic passing of Diogo Jota.
“A year ago we did the same, but maybe the lineup felt different,” he said, before pointing to Man City and Chelsea‘s ability to field stronger rotated sides than his.
“We’re only missing four players at the moment and already we needed to start with four players under the age of 19, and after I made two substitutions we were on six.”
The squad-building process at Liverpool is a collaborative effort and every decision is carefully deliberated – but Slot would surely have benefited from keeping Harvey Elliott, already out of favour at Aston Villa, around for example.
It still means a number of those involved in this latest chastening defeat will again be called upon to at least occupy the bench for the visit of Aston Villa on Saturday night; one of Kerkez or Robertson will start again.
That clash with Villa kicks off a run of three games in nine days that will decide whether Slot’s call to effectively surrender the Carabao Cup was a calculated risk or a hapless gamble at a time when victory would have boosted morale.
Liverpool now have to beat Villa – or the gamble backfires
Villa on Saturday, Real Madrid on Tuesday and then Man City the following Sunday; it is a blockbuster period in Liverpool’s season and one in which Slot desperately needs a return to form.
If Liverpool are able to revive their fortunes with positive results in each of those three games, defeat in the Carabao Cup will quickly be forgotten.
However if this miserable stretch continues, and particularly if the record becomes one win in 10 heading into the year’s final international break, the pressure will only grow on Slot and his defending champions.
It can certainly be argued that lesser rotation and the ability to introduce the likes of Szoboszlai, Wirtz and Salah from the bench in order to secure a win on Wednesday night would have relieved that pressure considerably.
But that is the risk Slot has taken, and all involved can simply hope it pays off.
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