'The rot has to stop soon'

UNDER-STRENGTH REDS FAIL TO HALT LOSING TREND

- By PAUL GORST at Anfield

If anyone was wondering how much Arne Slot was feeling the heat during the worst run of his Liverpool tenure, they were given their answer when the team news dropped at 6.30pm.

It would have been easy for an embattled manager, knee deep in the mire after five defeats in six, to have picked a slew of his big guns for this fourth-round tie against Crystal Palace.

Instead, Slot selected the exact sort of team that the Liverpool boss would reasonably be expected to at this stage of a competition that, plainly, sits bottom in the list of priorities.

The message, despite the month from hell, was crystal clear: there's no panic here.

It was bold, it was brave and, while it was not quite Brendan Rodgers controversially resting the major stars at Real Madrid in effort to secure a Premier League win later that week against Chelsea, with 2025's Liverpool entertaining Aston Villa next, there were at least some similarities to November 2014.

Rodgers' Reds lost both of those back then and while the Northern Irishman lasted another 11 months in the job, it was the beginning of the end in the eyes of many at the time.

Things are not quite as grave for defending Premier League champion Slot presently, but there was no doubt he was willing to all but concede a place in the fifth round of the League Cup if it means that his stuttering seniors get their campaign back on track on Saturday night.