Arne Slot appears to have backtracked on his stance regarding Liverpool’s squad depth.
Slot made wholesale changes for Liverpool’s Carabao Cup fourth-round tie against Crystal Palace on Wednesday night, a decision that ultimately backfired in a 3-0 loss at Anfield.
Captain Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah, Hugo Ekitike, Florian Wirtz and Dominik Szoboszlai were all rested ahead of Saturday’s Premier League showdown against Aston Villa.
Speaking after the Reds suffered a sixth defeat in seven matches across all competitions, Slot defended his team selection and also suggested Manchester City and Chelsea have greater squad depth than Liverpool.
“I said this also for the television that before I went out I saw [Manchester] City's line-up and I don't think they had one starter from the weekend, but it felt as if you looked at their line-up that they played with 11 starters,” the Dutchman said in his post-match press conference.
“Maybe it also gives a little bit of insight that everybody has always said how big of a squad we are having. When we played Chelsea, I said they are missing eight but they can still bring Estevao 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.”
However, when speaking just last month, Slot defended the departures of Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez, Jarrell Quansah and Ben Doak in the summer as their combined sales allowed the club to raise significant funds.
"There's so much focus on our new signings and especially pundits who favour, not us, but some other clubs in the country that cannot stop talking about £450million," he said ahead of the Champions League clash at home to Atletico Madrid.
“But they forget about [nearly] £300m that we have sold for. I think we did great business.
"These players we've brought in are worth a lot of money but are playing now with players worth the same amount of money.
"If we want to strengthen the squad, we have to spend that money. If we were to sell Dominik Szoboszlai tomorrow, he'd be worth £100m as well."
