There’s no question that a 1-0 defeat away to Plymouth in the FA Cup was a disappointment for Arne Slot’s travelling stars.
The Dutch head coach attracted a bizarre amount of criticism for his selection calls in the cup, opting to leave behind several key starters, including the likes of Virgil van Dijk and Mo Salah.
Despite the presence of senior stars in Diogo Jota, Federico Chiesa and Harvey Elliott, the Greens’ well-taken penalty via Ryan Hardie was enough to secure passage to the fifth round.
Liverpool are next set to take on city rivals Everton in the final Merseyside derby at Goodison Park ahead of the Blues’ move to Bramley-Moore Dock.
Arne Slot can’t be blamed for mad fixture schedule
Slot found support in what some may reasonably view to be an unlikely place, as Mark Goldbridge came to the 46-year-old’s defence following our FA Cup exit.
The podcaster pointed to the ‘ridiculous’ fixture calendar as being the problematic entity in this particular situation.
“Don’t blame Slot, don’t blame the FA Cup – blame the calendar! The calendar is ridiculous,” the United Stand presenter spoke on the That’s Football! podcast.
“If Liverpool were to put out Van Dijk in that game or Mo Salah and after half an hour they pull a hamstring and are out for six weeks, you’ve just risked a player against Plymouth and everyone will go, ‘Didn’t need to do it’.
“So, you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. They should still have won the game with the team he selected, and that’s disappointing.
“But I don’t think he can be criticised for disrespecting the cup by not picking certain players. Because if he picked them and then you missed them against Everton, Villa away, the Carabao Cup final and the Man City game that’s coming up, I think every Liverpool fan will say, ‘Don’t pick that player against Plymouth’.”
Something had to give at Liverpool
Pundits and commentators can say what they want, but if we’d come away from Plymouth with a win, despite committing a severely weakened squad to the tie, Slot would have been labelled a genius.
Unfortunately, circumstances haven’t worked out in our favour on this occasion, and the focus has been on the former Feyenoord boss’ supposed arrogance as opposed to the brilliant home performance.
Wouldn’t it be far more respectful to give Miron Muslic and his side the credit they deserve?
But we digress… the real enemy here is the fixture calendar. Between February 12 to February 26, Liverpool will play five Premier League games in the space of 14 days – a game every 2.8 days!
Are some pundits serious with their nonsense “disrespectful” claims when the remainder of the month could be make or break for our title ambitions?
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