‘Craziness’ - Arne Slot told he made two mistakes in Liverpool defeat to Tottenham
Arne Slot named a strong starting XI for Liverpool’s League Cup semi-final first leg against Tottenham Hotspur. While the Dutchman made four changes to his side, the likes of Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk, Alisson Becker and Ryan Gravenberch all retained their places.
Despite the strength of their line-up, the Reds were again below-par as they fell to a 1-0 defeat as Slot lost an away match for the first time since his Feyenoord side were beaten by Celtic in the Champions League group-stages back in December 2023.
Suffering just his second defeat as Liverpool head coach since succeeding Jurgen Klopp last summer, Slot will hope his side return to winning ways next time out in the FA Cup third round on Saturday.
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Hosting League Two Accrington Stanley at Anfield, Slot is expected to rotate his team thoroughly with the Reds then in Premier League action away at title rivals Nottingham Forest on Tuesday.
But such a domestic cup respite against lower-league opposition has not stopped Slot from being criticised for his selection decisions against Tottenham, with former Chelsea defender Frank Leboeuf insisting he made a mistake by starting both Van Dijk and Salah.
“I think he should have rotated a little bit more,” the Frenchman said on ESPN UK’s YouTube channel. “It’s the first leg of a semi-final, so you have that game in the FA Cup against Accrington Stanley.
“So you have an opportunity to rest players and they need a rest. After the tough winter time, they need a rest before starting the craziness of the end of the season.
“It would have been more clever to rest someone like Van Dijk and maybe some others like Salah to make sure they can play the second leg.”
Speaking to Sky Sports ahead of kick-off, Slot did explain some of the reasoning behind his selection as he elaborated on why Alisson and Diogo Jota were handed starts while Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson dropped to the bench.
“It’s mostly to do with Trent playing so many minutes because Conor Bradley was injured,” he said of benching his vice-captain. “Now it’s a good thing we have Conor back who needs his minutes as well.
“You can see it on the opposite side with Robertson and Tsimikas. As far as I know, Robertson is not distracted by contractual situations. So that is not in my mind when I make decisions.
“There are choices like playing Alisson and Jota, they are two players that came back from an injury. We think they need match rhythm in this period of time after coming back from an injury.”