Arne Slot selected a formidable starting XI for Liverpool's League Cup semi-final first leg against Tottenham Hotspur. Despite making four changes, key players including Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk, Alisson Becker and Ryan Gravenberch all kept their places.
However, the Reds didn't perform up to par, suffering a 1-0 defeat. This marked Slot's first away loss since his Feyenoord team was defeated by Celtic in the Champions League group stages back in December 2023.
This is only Slot's second defeat as Liverpool head coach since he took over from Jurgen Klopp last summer. He will be hoping for a return to winning form in the FA Cup third round on Saturday, where they host League Two Accrington Stanley at Anfield.
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With a Premier League match against title rivals Nottingham Forest on Tuesday, Slot is expected to rotate his squad significantly. However, this hasn't stopped criticism of Slot's selection decisions against Tottenham.
Former Chelsea defender Frank Leboeuf believes Slot made an error by starting both Van Dijk and Salah. "I think he should have rotated a little bit more," Leboeuf said on ESPN UK's YouTube channel. "It's the first leg of a semi-final, so you have that game in the FA Cup against Accrington Stanley.
"So you have an opportunity to rest players and they need a rest. After the tough winter time, they need a rest before starting the craziness of the end of the season.
"It would have been more clever to rest someone like Van Dijk and maybe some others like Salah to make sure they can play the second leg."
Speaking to Sky Sports ahead of kick-off, Slot explained his selection choices, particularly why Alisson and Diogo Jota were given starts while Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson were benched. "It's mostly to do with Trent playing so many minutes because Conor Bradley was injured," he said about benching his vice-captain.
"Now it's a good thing we have Conor back who needs his minutes as well. You can see it on the opposite side with Robertson and Tsimikas. There are choices like playing Alisson and Jota, they are two players that came back from an injury. We think they need match rhythm in this period of time after coming back from an injury."