It is not a crisis to be eliminated from the Carabao Cup by this excellent Crystal Palace side. Not with 10 changes, including two debutants in the starting 11, three teenagers beginning the game, and a creche on the bench. Not even when it was Arne Slot’s heaviest defeat as Liverpool manager.
But for him and them, a second successive Anfield beating nevertheless compounded the wider sense that the wheels have fallen off, suddenly and stunningly. “There are many reasons why we have lost six out of seven,” said Slot. “None are good enough to accept losing so many.” Liverpool have now lost each of their last six games in England. It is the sort of run which would have felt inconceivable when they went to Selhurst Park little more than a month ago, boasting a 100 per cent record in both the Premier and the Champions League. In a rematch, Palace reinforced the sense they are Liverpool’s bogey side, and Ismaila Sarr their bogey player.
No wonder their exuberant fans asked if they could play Liverpool every week. Oliver Glasner’s overachievers have now chalked up a hat-trick, overcoming Liverpool in the Community Shield, the Premier League and now the Carabao Cup. “I don’t know how often this happens when you play the champions three times within three months, and you win three times,” said the Palace manager. Sarr has scored in each triumph, a four-minute brace taking his tally to four goals against Liverpool this season. They will enter November with the Senegalese winger contributing four times as many goals in their matches as Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz have between them. Suffice to say, this was not what Liverpool imagined when they committed nine-figure sums to buying each.
And if the two record signings were among a host of absentees, if there were reasons to prioritise a week featuring Aston Villa, Real Madrid and Manchester City, Slot gambled and lost. He was nevertheless unrepentant about his rotation. “We had only 15 or 16 players available,” he said. “This felt to me the right decision, and I haven’t changed my opinion on that after the result. It is the same selection I did last year in rounds like this.”
But then he stacked the bench with experience, with a trump card in Mohamed Salah. This group of substitutes had only nine previous appearances for Liverpool between them. And as his second-string side followed in the footsteps of their supposed superiors – by losing – the 18-year-old substitute Amara Nallo achieved an ignominious double. His second appearance for Liverpool brought a second red card. His first team career has spanned 16 minutes and he has been sent off twice. As with much else at Liverpool now, the wrong sort of history was made.
There was another break from the past. Perhaps it was a compliment to Glasner that, for the first time in his reign, Slot started with a back three. But while that surprised the Austrian, copying his formation does not equate to mastering it like Palace. Slot could change the personnel and the system, but not Liverpool’s habit of going behind. They have now conceded first in seven consecutive matches.
Slot had a lone specialist centre-back in that back three and Joe Gomez had an unfortunate role in both goals. The ball bounced off him for Sarr to dispatch a half-volley past Freddie Woodman for the opener. Then Gomez managed to vacate the centre of the penalty area when Yeremy Pino found Sarr and he lifted a shot into the roof of the net. Glasner admitted he spent Tuesday debating whether to demote Sarr or Jean-Philippe Mateta for this game. He was relieved he started with the Senegalese.
The classy Pino was to add a late third, but Sarr’s clinical double had long since decided the game. The perfectionist in Glasner was unhappy with the first 15 minutes, when Rio Ngumoha sparkled with his skill in the initial exchanges, and as Federico Chiesa tested Walter Benitez. For each, it was a rare outing.
Woodman, the son of Palace’s former goalkeeping coach and the godson of their ex-captain, Gareth Southgate, and Kieran Morrison made their debuts. Calvin Ramsay made just his second start, Ngumoha his third, Trey Nyoni his fourth and the rather more experienced Chiesa his fifth. Slot argued Liverpool have often used the League Cup to give opportunities to younger players, but they are normally surrounded by more senior figures.
And whereas Glasner afforded himself options by naming Mateta on the bench, Slot left himself with nothing in reserve. The Dutchman seemed to raise the white flag when taking off the stand-in skipper, Andy Robertson, and Alexis Mac Allister. Anfield has witnessed many a comeback over the years, and Slot’s Liverpool have scored plenty of late goals this season, but this was an admission there would be no sequel.
And the 18-year-old Nallo must wish he had not been sent on, because he was sent off 12 minutes later. As the last man, he tugged back Justin Devenny. Referee Craig Pawson did not have the option of showing mercy. The rested regulars Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate immediately went to the dressing room to console the teenager Nallo. “That tells me they are great human beings,” said Slot.
It was one of the few positives he could take. Drenched in the rain, he was taunted with chants of “sacked in the morning” by the Palace fans. It will prove an incorrect prediction, but the danger is that Liverpool’s plight could worsen.
Now Liverpool will enter a defining week wondering if six defeats in swift succession could become nine. The last match they won in England was in the Carabao Cup. They will not win it, because now they are not even in it.
