During a flailing series of increasingly desperate postmatch interviews, Liverpool manager Arne Slot rolled out an unconvincing series of excuses to help justify his outrageously inexperienced starting XI against Crystal Palace on Wednesday evening, including a jarring shift of focus toward Manchester City and Chelsea’s lineups.
Slot made 10 changes for the midweek Carabao Cup clash, with left back Milos Kerkez the only survivor from the side which lost 3–2 to Brentford on Saturday night. Andy Robertson was shoehorned into central defence while 18-year-old Kieran Morrison made his professional debut on the right flank.
There was far less rotation in Palace’s XI, which crucially included Liverpool tormentor Ismaïla Sarr, who scored twice in a comfortable 3–0 win at Anfield.
The most damning aspect about Slot’s selection was the lack of seniority in reserve. The likes of Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konaté and Mohamed Salah were left out of the matchday squad entirely. The nine substitutes boasted 19 first-team appearances between them, with none older than 21.
As Slot pointed out postgame, Liverpool were not alone in rotating their squad for the Carabao Cup. Manchester City also made 10 changes. However, Pep Guardiola was able to bring the deeply experienced trio of John Stones, Joško Gvardiol and Phil Foden off the bench in a fixture against Championship side Swansea City—not the reigning FA Cup champions.
3 games, 4 goals and 1 assist.
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Ismaïla Sarr has loved facing Liverpool this season. pic.twitter.com/dMAqrWUa1Y
“I saw City’s lineup and I don’t think they had one starter from the weekend,” Slot mistakenly moaned, “but it felt as if you look at their lineup they played with their 11 starters. So maybe it also gives a little bit of insight—everybody has always said how big of a squad we have.”
Then the manager who oversaw the largest transfer spend in football history this past summer turned to another Premier League rival as an example of the depth that Liverpool supposedly can’t aspire to.
“When we played Chelsea, I said, ‘They’re missing eight but they can still bring Estêvão in.’ We are 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 [under-19s].”
It is not a complete surprise to me.Arne Slot
Slot went on to claim that Liverpool’s squad is not cut out for the demand of playing on a weekend and in midweek.
“I saw some of the struggles that the players have had in preseason and players that came from different leagues,” the Dutch boss sighed. “It is a new challenge for them to play at Premier League and Champions League level, three games in seven days.” Florian Wirtz, Jeremie Frimpong and Hugo Ekitiké were all involved in European competition just last season, while six of Liverpool’s current squad have already won the Champions League.
“To add to that, this club has always used this competition for their academy players as well,” Slot added in a desperate attempt to save face. “So for the non-starters and the academy players, this felt to me like the right decision.”
In order to further justify his bold calls, Slot pointed to the injuries Liverpool have already suffered.
“Last time I played a player that wasn’t fully prepared—we thought he was prepared but it was the first time—[Alexander] Isak, he got injured. Last time we played Southampton [Giovanni] Leoni was injured and it was a red card for Hugo Ekitiké. Those are the things we can’t use with a big week coming up,” he told Sky Sports.
“People all of a sudden think we have 25 players available. But we mainly have 20 players then we have four injuries. I only have one right fullback, Conor Bradley, as an example. Every time I had to play him twice in three days or three times in seven days [last season] I had to take him off with a hamstring injury or something else.
“Are you willing to take that risk with such a big week coming up?”
Liverpool host a resurgent Aston Villa on Saturday evening before taking on Real Madrid next Tuesday in an almighty Champions League clash. It will be a dramatically different starting XI for both of those fixtures but, as Slot perhaps unwisely highlighted, Liverpool’s first-choice XI have also struggled to get results as of late.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Arne Slot Turns to Man City, Chelsea in Desperate Defence of Bizarre Liverpool Lineup.
