Copyright sportskeeda
Liverpool suffered their sixth loss in the last seven games across all competitions on Wednesday, when they were knocked out of the fourth round of the EFL Cup by Crystal Palace. Arne Slot decided to leave out Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk, Dominik Szoboszlai, Cody Gakpo, Hugo Ekitike, Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak out of the match day squad as the Reds were battered 3-0 at Anfield. In the wake of the embarrassing defeat, former Liverpool star Don Hutchison has pinned the blame entirely on Slot. The footballer-turned-pundit stated that he felt sorry for the youngsters in the Liverpool line-up against Palace, claiming how they had no chance of winning due to the lack of experience around them.Hutchison said on ESPN FC:“Even the staunchest Liverpool fan can’t be angry tonight because the group of young players that got sent out there, I really felt for them. The one thing you want when you’re a younger player, you want two or three experienced players around you. That team had no chance of beating Crystal Palace. It was one-way traffic from minute one."Hutchison labelled Slot's decision to name a young team for the game as a 'rookie error' and pointed to how all of Liverpool's rivals decided to go with a mix of experience and youth in the other fourth round fixtures. He added:“It really was a rookie error from Arne Slot. When you look across the board tonight, you look at Newcastle, Spurs, Arsenal, Man City and Crystal Palace, they all played sides with four or five first team [regular] players in it and at least three or four of them on the bench. There was no first team players to be seen on the Liverpool bench, so what chance did they have?The former Scotland international also dismissed the idea of the Reds resting players since they have three games coming up over the seven days. He highlighted how all of Newcastle, Tottenham, Arsenal and Manchester City have the same type of fixture congestion, yet they fielded better teams for the cup games.Hutchison concluded:“It was awful [selection from Slot]. All the teams that play in the Champions League have got three games this week [so that’s not an excuse]. I have no idea why he put that many youngsters in the starting XI, but the bench was even younger and it made no sense whatsoever. Liverpool fans will come out of that by being so frustrated at Slot, and he has to take the blame. It’s totally down to him. Slot has some big questions to answer.”Liverpool were runners-up in the EFL Cup last season, with Newcastle beating them in the final at Wembley. They have now followed rivals Manchester United, who were knocked in the previous round, by going out of the 2025/26 edition of the competition.Arne Slot responds to criticism about Liverpool team selection after loss against Crystal PalaceDespite questions being raised against his decision to make 10 changes to the starting XI that lost to Brentford, Liverpool boss Slot has defended himself. The Dutchman touched upon how he has already lost key players to injury this season and suggested he didn't want a repeat of the same. Slot told reporters:"People all of a sudden think we have 25 players available but we mainly have 20 players then we have four injuries. Last time I played a player that wasn't fully prepared - we thought he was prepared but it was the first time - Alexander Isak, he got injured."Slot also went on to claim that people would have called him 'stupid' if he had decided to start with Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate and one of them got injured in the game.He added:"Last time we played Southampton Leoni was injured and it was a red card for Hugo Ekitike. Those are the things we can't use with a big week coming up. But there's always a choice. What if I had played Virgil [van Dijk] and Ibou [Konate], for example, if one of them got injured people would have said, 'what a stupid choice'."Liverpool next face Aston Villa, who are on a six-game unbeaten run in the Premier League, on Saturday at Anfield.
