If the bad news for Arne Slot is that his team are now out of the FA Cup, the good news is that the Liverpool boss at least had the best part of 300 miles back to Merseyside to get it out of his system.

For the supporters who had made that same cross-country trek for this fourth-round tie, such an arduous pilgrimage surely only added to the frustration at bowing out to a second-tier team.

But by the time the club themselves touched down on home soil on Sunday evening, one suspects Slot and his staff will already have turned their attention to Wednesday evening's festivities at Goodison Park. Some defeats simply linger longer than others.

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There will be no FA Cup for Slot to celebrate in his maiden season at Anfield then, and while that fact will be mourned by the Dutchman, it will only be briefly as the focus quickly shifts to the small matter of Everton and the chance to go nine points clear in the Premier League's title race. Do that and this debacle will be a mere footnote; the off-day can become an afterthought.

To achieve victory on his first and last trip to Goodison Park, however, Slot will know his Reds team will have to play infinitely better than they did here in this 1-0 defeat to Plymouth Argyle. He will at least be able to unleash virtually all of his big guns on a rejuvenated Blues, having left them kicking their heels at home to avoid this punishing 600-mile round trip to Devon.

Having seen no giant killings on Saturday, it was left to Liverpool to be slain by the Championship's bottom club on Sunday and the hosts were well worth what will be viewed round these parts as a famous victory. The phrase "the best team in Europe" was bandied about more than once around these parts prior to kick-off at Home Park and the win was celebrated like they had indeed just seen off Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah and co.

Quite right too, as Plymouth boss Miron Muslic said: "This is the FA Cup; this is Liverpool". And Slot still had enough big-name players in his contingent who failed to turn up on the day and for the likes of Harvey Elliott, Diogo Jota and Kostas Tsimikas, this was a chance missed to stake a claim for derby-day inclusion. Not many across the team could hold their heads high on the day, in fact.

As expected, Slot rang the changes after Thursday's Carabao Cup win over Tottenham with only Caoimhin Kelleher keeping his place while the likes of Salah, Van Dijk, Ryan Gravenberch and several other high-profile figures were left back at home, wrapped in cotton wool.

An inexperienced side was quickly shorn of the long-serving Joe Gomez's know-how after the returning defender's comeback lasted less than 10 minutes. It was cruel luck on a player who has only just resumed action after around six weeks out with a hamstring injury. Isaac Mabaya came on in his place as Wataru Endo dropped to centre-half and James McConnell moved into midfield.

A star-studded frontline of Jota, Luis Diaz and Federico Chiesa were starved of service for the majority of the first half with the Reds unable to gain the upper hand in midfield and the hosts' aggressive, rough-and-ready approach seemed to unnerve the Reds, even if Kelleher was largely untroubled.

Jota in fact, on what was just his second start in four months, completed just one pass during an isolated first 45 minutes. Chiesa, if it was possible, was even more anonymous while Diaz was all perspiration and no inspiration.

Both Jarell Quansah and Endo completed more passes than the entire Plymouth side and Liverpool had close to 80% of the ball in the first half, but unlike Thursday night's demolition of Spurs, such statistics were not indicative of their dominance.

Plymouth were awarded a penalty by referee Sam Barrott when Elliott was judged to have handled a hooked effort from Darko Gyabi and Ryan Hardie did what Kylian Mbappe couldn't by scoring from 12 yards past Kelleher to put the hosts 1-0 up.

Slot sent on Darwin Nunez in an effort to change the flow of the game but the Uruguay striker fared no better than his starting colleagues. Even with Diaz, Jota, Chiesa and Nunez all on the pitch, the visitors struggled to create anything of note, which was perhaps the most worrying aspect for the head coach.

Jota's snapshot brought an excellent save from Conor Hazard and Nunez should have equalised in the closing seconds of the nine added minutes but it would have been harsh on Plymouth, whose work rate was superior to their visitors all day.

It's become something of a running joke in Liverpool circles how often Slot references his team's defeat to Nottingham Forest at Anfield back in September. And while the Reds' two other losses this term - against Tottenham and PSV - ultimately proved to be meaningless in the grander scheme of things, this one will elicit a smidgen more irritation for everyone concerned.

But the reality is there are bigger fish to fry for Slot and an unwanted exit here is cosmetic damage only to the season's overriding ambitions. One small mercy is that crashing out now ends fanciful notions of an unprecedented quadruple and the external pressure that comes with such unrealistic debates.

To Everton then, where Liverpool have to now make sure the team selection here and those fleeting moments of embarrassment on the journey home were all for the greater good.