Liverpool NewsArne Slot criticises Liverpool players for Plymouth defeat and admits shock loss ‘hurts’…

Arne Slot criticises Liverpool players for Plymouth defeat and admits shock loss ‘hurts’

Liverpool lost 1-0 to Plymouth Argyle in the fifth round of the FA Cup as Ryan Hardie’s 53rd minute penalty secured a famous win for the side bottom of the Championship

Arne Slot says his Liverpool players fell well short of expectations as they were knocked out of the FA Cup by Championship basement-dwellers Plymouth Argyle.

With a Merseyside derby at Everton on the horizon on Wednesday, the Reds boss opted to make 10 changes to the side that had beaten Tottenham 4-0 in the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg last week.

But the heavily-rotated side delivered an abject display, with Slot admitting that Plymouth deserved their victory.

“It’s a great day for Plymouth,” Slot told ITV Sport after the match. “They had a good gameplan and they deserve all the credit for their performance today. We were not having a very good day, and a result like this is the outcome.

“I don’t think I can say the boys didn’t fight, because it was a fight for 100 minutes. Both teams didn’t really create many chances and the game was decided by a penalty that was awarded correctly.

“But in a game like this where the teams aren’t able to find many openings it is up to one moment and that moment was for them, and like I said they deserved it because they played a really good game.”

Slot went on to add that the displays of his squad players didn’t match up to his expectations, adding that he felt a sense of ‘hurt’ over the defeat.

“I think (the players here today) are able to do better, but this is a playing style that is quite hard to create your chances against, which is what we saw today,” he said. “But we expected to play a better game than this, but we give credit to Plymouth as well.

“It hurts everyone that’s involved with Liverpool, fans, me, players, we were all wanting to be in this competition but if you go out in one of the first possible games thats a setback.

“Today we kept on fighting until the last second. Maybe the only chances we created were in the last 10-15 minutes, so it wasn’t a work rate problem, but we couldn’t find openings and chances.”

In a separate interview with BBC Sport, Slot added: “There were not many young players in the team. Most of them, everyone is constantly telling us – and I agree with them – that we have a strong squad. These players, they help us when they come from the bench.

“That’s not an excuse that the starters were not here. These players should be able to win a game like this. But we knew it would be a difficult game because of their playing style.”