Former Premier League referee Keith Hackett believes Liverpool midfielder Harvey Elliott was rightly penalised in Sunday's 1-0 defeat to Plymouth Argyle. The Reds were dumped out of the FA Cup by the Championship struggles after Ryan Hardie scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot eight minutes into the second half.

Hardie's opportunity to score from twelve yards came after referee Sam Barrott awarded the home side a spot-kick for a handball against Elliott, despite the protests of the Liverpool midfielder.

However, Hackett insists that Barrott's decision to penalise Elliott was correct. Speaking to Football Insider, he said: “Referee Sam Barrott was ideally positioned to correctly award a penalty kick to Plymouth.

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“Liverpool’s Harvey Elliott had his hands above his head when the ball struck him. Clearly, his silhouette was made bigger by his raised hand.”

Despite the defeat, Liverpool head coach Arne Slot insisted he had no regrets about making ten changes for the fourth-round tie at Home Park.

"Regrets? No, because you never know what would happen if we played with our starters over here," said Slot. "I think during the season we have seen a few times already that this is a gameplan [from Plymouth], a style which is difficult for our starters but also for the players who started today. So constantly long balls, second balls, long balls. It's difficult for every team.

"We had this with Manchester United earlier in the season, and it was the same, going into a low block, kicking every ball long and we played with our starters in that game.

"So today I think it showed why we used these ones today because these players need game rhythm as well in the upcoming months, they need game time and you saw today, some of these players need to be like this to be ready for the final few months of the season."