Arne Slot, we love you - but what are you talking about? | OneFootball

Liverpool sunk to another defeat on Wednesday evening in the Carabao Cup. The pressure is on Arne Slot but he's got to handle things better than this.

Liverpool are having a difficult season. Of course, that wasn’t the case a couple of months ago as they were on an incredible winning streak and topping the Premier League.

Now, however, it’s six defeats from seven. Liverpool can’t find any rhythm and bowed out of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday evening.

A much, much changed team lost 3-0 at home to Crystal Palace. In truth, that team was never beating Palace, who went with a reasonably strong lineup at Anfield.

There were debuts, players we haven’t seen for a while and above all, a different system as Arne Slot switched to match Palace’s 3-4-3 formation. That didn’t bring a positive result but then a team of youngsters playing in a new system was about as up-against-it as you’ll see.

So the result wasn’t necessarily worrying. Liverpool got exactly what they thought they’d get, after all.

What was worrying were Slot’s comments after the match. The boss said some things we’re not sure needed to be said.

Arne Slot's post-match comments

Slot talked after the match about his squad not actually being as big as people think. Liverpool don't, he says, have a 25-man-deep squad where he can rotate heavily and still boast a contending side.

And that's true! Liverpool don't have that - they essentially sacrificed their squad depth in the summer for a stronger first XI. Whether that was actually a good idea or not is up for debate.

What isn't really up for debate, though, is that Slot did not have to go with a bench as weak as he did. There were zero senior players in reserve, completing removing any ability to change the game.

"I saw [Manchester] City's XI and they didn't have one starter from the weekend but it felt like their best XI," he told reporters after the match. "That is a bit of an insight.

"Chelsea can bring Estevao in. After I made two substitutions tonight, we had six teenagers."

He's right - there were six teenagers. That was entirely his choice, however. City boasted the likes of Josko Gvardiol, John Stones, Savinho, Matheus Nunes, Phil Foden and Nico O'Reilly on their bench.

Slot absolutely could have done similar.

But even stranger than that was the comment that 'even with our starters, it's difficult to beat Palace'. It's the kind of line we haven't heard from a Liverpool boss since Roy Hodgson, quite honestly - a suggestion that we shouldn't expect too much against a 'smaller' club.

At the end of the day, Slot was probably right to rotate as heavily as he did. Liverpool face Aston Villa, Real Madrid and Manchester City over the next week-and-a-bit.

Those are three enormous games and he didn't want to take any chances with senior stars. That is more than fair, quite honestly.

His comments afterwards, however, are strange. They're not what you expect to hear from a Liverpool boss and also not particularly true, either.

Maybe it's simply a sign that Slot is feeling the pressure right now and that's completely understandable. Hopefully there's a stronger message coming from the club after Saturday.