Crystal Palace are the winners of the 2025 Community Shield, beating Liverpool at Wembley. Here are three things Arne Slot got completely wrong on the day.
Oliver Glasner wins at Wembley again. Palace were triumphant on Sunday afternoon thanks to a dramatic penalty shootout.
Liverpool did have some good performances against Palace. The new signings of Hugo Ekitike and Florian Wirtz did the business for the Reds initially, but partly because of a Virgil van Dijk disaster on Sunday afternoon.
Ismaila Sarr is tackled by Virgil van Dijk during Crystal Palace v Liverpool in the 2025 FA Community Shield
Photo by Marc Atkins/Getty Images
That said, the manager deserves some of the blame, and here are three reasons why.
Curtis Jones shouldn’t have been substituted
Ryan Gravenberch was missing in the Community Shield, and boy, did Curtis Jones step up in his absence. The Englishman was sensational in the centre of the park, and before he was subbed off. He produced a near-flawless performance.
Gravenberch’s presence is usually such a big one for Liverpool, so for him to slot in the pivot role so easily and boss the game was very impressive.
Arne Slot was wrong to sub him off, and the Liverpool side looked infinitely better when Jones was present.
Mohamed Salah should have been subbed
Alongside Van Dijk, Mohamed Salah had an absolute nightmare. The Egyptian was awful throughout and, crucially, missed one of the penalties in the shootout, blasting over Dean Henderson’s bar.
That miss set the tone for what followed in the shootout. Salah also had little impact on the game itself. Granted, at 33, he’s still capable of changing games in a heartbeat – but not on Sunday.
Crystal Palace v Liverpool - 2025 FA Community Shield
Photo by Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images
Slot should have taken him off earlier, and the substitution decision should have been simple.
Rio Ngumoha should have got Wembley minutes
Liverpool had youngster Rio Ngumoha on the bench, and he deserved a run in the game. Ngumoha has impressed throughout pre-season and could have injected the dynamism and energy Liverpool clearly needed as the match wore on.
Justin Devenny was the hero for Palace, and Slot might have done well to take a leaf out of Oliver Glasner’s book by giving his own wonderkid a chance on the pitch.
Who knows – the final result might have been very different.