Oct 30, 2025, 03:59 AM ET<\/p>\n
Arne Slot insisted his Liverpool<\/a> team selection in the Carabao Cup<\/a> defeat was about protecting key players, like Alexander Isak<\/a>, from injury.<\/p>\n Liverpool’s bad run of form extended to a sixth defeat in seven games when Crystal Palace<\/a> ran out 3-0 winners at Anfield on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Slot rotated his starting XI with 10 changes from their most recent Premier League<\/a> match against Brentford<\/a>. Mohamed Salah<\/a> and Virgil van Dijk<\/a> were notably absent from the squad.<\/p>\n “Everybody can have [an] opinion about it, but with the squad we have — maybe 15, 16 first-team players available — this is the choice I’ve made,” Slot told Sky Sports.<\/p>\n “It’s not of Liverpool’s standards to lose five out of six, or six out of seven.<\/p>\n “Last time we played Southampton here in the League Cup, Giovanni Leoni<\/a> got injured. We don’t have such a big squad as people might tell. There was so much focus on the amount of money we spent.<\/p>\n “People all of a sudden think we have 25 players available. But we mainly have 20 players then we have four injuries.<\/p>\n “I only have one right full-back, Conor Bradley<\/a>, as an example. Every time I had to play him twice in three days or three times in seven days [last season] I had to take him off with a hamstring injury or something else.<\/p>\n “Are you willing to take that risk with such a big week coming up?<\/p>\n “Last time I played a player that wasn’t fully prepared — we thought he was prepared but it was the first time — Isak, he got injured.<\/p>\n “Last time we played Southampton Leoni was injured and it was a red card for Hugo Ekitike<\/a>. Those are the things we can’t use with a big week coming up.<\/p>\n – Slot’s Carabao Cup gamble puts more pressure on Liverpool “But there’s always a choice. What if I had played Virgil and [Ibrahima Konate], for example, if one of them got injured people would have said ‘what a stupid choice!’<\/p>\n “And also with [the key players] it was very difficult for us, for our starters to beat Palace because it’s not the first time we lose against them.”<\/p>\n Liverpool play Aston Villa<\/a> on Saturday in the Premier League<\/a> at Anfield. They also face Real Madrid<\/a> and Manchester City<\/a> before the international break.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oct 30, 2025, 03:59 AM ET Arne Slot insisted his Liverpool team selection in the Carabao Cup defeat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-260947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
–<\/a> Liverpool face no new pressure amid 6-of-7 skid, Slot says<\/a>
–<\/a> Liverpool’s struggles continue in Carabao Cup exit to Palace<\/a><\/p>\n