Liverpool boss Arne Slot has been brutally honest over his own mistakes in recent weeks and on the back of defeats to PSG and Newcastle ended trophy hopes in two competitions, has again taken himself to task
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Arne Slot head coach of Liverpool during a press conference
(Image: Andrew Powell, Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
Arne Slot has conceded that he made a blunder with his team selection for Liverpool's Carabao Cup final defeat to Newcastle United. The Reds put in a lacklustre performance, succumbing to a 2-1 loss at the hands of the Magpies at Wembley with the Dutchman admitting it's the one game this season they deserved to lose.
Slot opted for just two changes from the side that faced a tough Champions League night against Paris Saint-Germain in the previous week. Liverpool were knocked out of Europe's premier club competition on penalties following an exhausting 120-minute battle.
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Caoimhin Kelleher stepped in for Alisson between the sticks, maintaining his role as Liverpool's cup goalkeeper, and Jarell Quansah took over right-back duties from Trent Alexander-Arnold, who was ruled out due to injury.
In the wake of consecutive defeats, critics have pointed fingers at the Liverpool boss for not leveraging his squad depth and rotating his players more throughout the season.
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Ahead of the Merseyside derby against Everton, Slot acknowledged that perhaps he should have freshened up his line-up more for the Wembley showdown - expressing regret for not starting Wataru Endo in midfield.
"Maybe, maybe, maybe I made the biggest mistake by not rotating enough," he reflected. "Not rotating enough in the line-up for Newcastle - but I thought there were four days in between, they had enough rest.
"But again it is too simple to only say we were outworked. We have to give credit to everything Newcastle did because in the end we conceded a corner. That is nothing to do with a sprint or tracking back or whatever, it is just conceding a corner.
"He (Endo) deserved maybe to come in if you look at the bigger picture of what he has done for the team, also in the League Cup. But as long as I am here now, for eight or nine months, I think you will be surprised if we are 1-0 or 2-0 down and I would have brought in a player that has hardly ever scored a goal. That would be a strange substitution.
Liverpool boss Arne Slot watches on at Wembley
(Image: Chris Brunskill/Fantasista, Getty Images)
"If we are 1-0 up, you can expect me to bring in Wata. In all the other occasions if we need a goal as we did, I took Ibou (Ibrahima Konate) off, put a midfielder in the last line, brought in Curtis (Jones), Ryan (Gravenberch) played as a right centre-back, Curtis started to play as a more offensive midfielder than Ryan, I brought in Harvey (Elliott) who can score a goal, I brought in Federico (Chiesa) who can score a goal, I had Darwin (Nunez) in the team, I had Cody (Gakpo) in the team, I had Mo (Mohamed Salah) in the team.
"So all the attackers were in the team and maybe I have to agree with you, that after 10 minutes I should have taken someone off to bring Wata in. But you don't see many managers taking a player off after 10 minutes.
"Maybe I made the wrong decision by not starting him, that's better to say! But we will never know.
"But we won against Newcastle with the ones that started, at home, and we outplayed them in the second half in Newcastle with the players that started in the final. So there was rationale behind the line-up."
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