“I saw Manchester City’s XI” – Arne Slot makes ridiculous excuse for Liverpool’s Carabao Cup exit | OneFootball

Liverpool boss Arne Slot presented his latest round of lame excuses for his side’s rut as he referenced Manchester City’s starting XI in their 3-1 win over Swansea City in the Carabao Cup to explain his team selection against Crystal Palace.

Slot has received strong criticism for Liverpool’s drop-off in the last month, with the Reds crashing out of the Carabao Cup after a 3-0 defeat at home to Crystal Palace in the fourth-round, with the Dutch manager naming a very young starting XI against Oliver Glasner’s men.

The Reds have lost six of their last seven games in all competitions and questions have been raised over the Premier League champions’ prospects in this season’s title race – after Slot and co spent £450 million in the recent transfer window.

The world will be watching on when Manchester City welcome Liverpool to the Etihad Stadium next weekend as Pep Guardiola looks to capitalise on the champions’ recent slump and pick up another three points in City’s own quest for the title.

City registered their place in the Carabao Cup quarter-final on Wednesday evening – where they will face Brentford at home – after goals from Jeremy Doku, Omar Marmoush and Rayan Cherki overturned a 1-0 deficit and secured a crucial win for the Blues in Wales.

However, Liverpool’s misfortunes continued in Merseyside as fresh from a 3-2 loss to Brentford in the Premier League at the weekend, Slot named a very young starting XI against Crystal Palace in the Carabao Cup and set his side up to fail.

Rather unsurprisingly, the young Reds were put to the sword by the Eagles at Anfield and there was little criticism aimed at the youngsters in red, with many left wondering what on earth Slot was thinking in terms of his squad selection.

Liverpool need any confidence and momentum on their side that they can get at the minute but Slot was quick to reference Manchester City in a rather lame and cop-out excuse for what was a blunder in his team selection against Crystal Palace.

“I saw Manchester City’s XI (against Swansea City) and they didn’t have one starter from the weekend, but it felt like their best XI. That’s a bit of an insight. After I made two substitutions (against Crystal Palace), we had six teenagers,” said the Liverpool manager in his post-match press conference, as quoted by Mail Sport’s Lewis Steele.

Liverpool fans will not be buying any of this and Slot will have to hold his hand up and admit that there was genuinely no need to take the Carabao Cup fourth-round as lightly as he did, particularly at home, when it would have been very convenient to name a much stronger bench.

The Reds had next to no options on the bench as they searched for inspiration in the second-half, having entered the interval at Anfield with a two-goal deficit after being outplayed in every aspect by Glasner and co in the opening 45 minutes.

Guardiola and his staff are likely to have chirped at Slot’s excuse and Manchester City will no doubt be relishing the chance of making things worse for Liverpool when the Premier League title contenders face off at the Etihad Stadium next weekend.