Wayne Rooney has criticised Liverpool boss Arne Slot for a decision that Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim would be \u201cabsolutely slaughtered\u201d for.<\/p>\n
Premier League leaders Liverpool<\/a> put in a poor performance on Tuesday evening, losing 1-0 to Turkish champions Galatasaray<\/a> in the Champions League.<\/p>\n It was the first time Liverpool<\/a> had failed to score this season and marked back-to-back defeats for only the second time during Slot\u2019s tenure at Anfield, following their Premier League loss to Crystal Palace on Saturday.<\/p>\n Victor Osimhen scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot after Baris Yilmaz was fouled by makeshift right-back Dominik Szoboszlai.<\/p>\n READ:\u00a0Forget goals, these numbers show it is time for Liverpool to be worried about Mo Salah<\/a><\/p>\n Szoboszlai, naturally a midfielder, was deployed at right-back with Jeremie Frimpong injured and Conor Bradley not fully fit earlier this season.<\/p>\n The Hungarian impressed, earning Player of the Match against Arsenal on matchday three, which helped earn him the nod again against Galatasaray.<\/p>\n To accommodate him, Frimpong was pushed further up to play on the right wing in place of Mohamed Salah<\/a>, who started on the bench.<\/p>\n But this tactical gamble didn\u2019t pay off, and Slot has faced criticism for the decision.<\/p>\n Manchester United legend Rooney was particularly unimpressed, arguing that if United boss Amorim had made a similar call \u2014 playing two players out of position \u2014 he would be \u201cabsolutely slaughtered\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought they [Liverpool] were really poor,\u201d Rooney said on his BBC podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the worry for me would be, they\u2019re losing the game and it looked like even with still quite a bit of time left to go, he just put every attacking player on the pitch and said like \u2018go and figure it out\u2019. And then, it could have got a lot worse for Liverpool during the game because with the amount of times they gave the ball away at the back and losing it and getting broke on and Alisson getting injured.<\/p>\n \u201cI think when you win the league like Arne Slot did with Liverpool last season then sometimes some of the decisions you make get overlooked. I think his decision to play a midfield player at right-back and a right-back and right-wing.<\/p>\n \u201cFor instance, if that was Amorim at Manchester United, he\u2019d get absolutely slaughtered.\u201d<\/p>\n MORE ON MAN UTD ON F365 Explaining his team selection against Galatasaray, Slot told reporters:\u00a0\u201cWhat you see is, and I think I explained this many times, is that there are a few players from us that missed pre-season so you simply cannot play them every single [game].<\/p>\n \u201cWell, you can but then that could become a risk of players becoming injured. We have seen this more and more because the demands go up more and more, and if the demands go up you have to prepare players for these demands.<\/p>\n \u201cThat means that it is not always that I want to rotate but sometimes I need to because a player is not ready to play three times 90 minutes in seven or eight days.<\/p>\n \u201cI like my squad so much, but we don\u2019t have 25 or 26 [players], so if we end up with two, three or four injuries, 15 or 16 players, where Rio and Trey are two of these 15 or 16, then need to play almost all the minutes and then things can become complicated.<\/p>\n \u201cBut this is a decision we have made together, I completely believe in this, because if you have 25 [players] it\u2019s very hard to manage your squad.<\/p>\n \u201cBut as a result of that, with Hugo, Alex, Conor and Mac Allister not having the pre-season a player should have, that also results in the fact that I cannot play them every time.\u201d<\/p>\n
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