Sympathy is in short supply as Liverpool crisis deepens

Arne Slot has been scrutinising teamsheets. Not his own, either. Liverpool’s Carabao Cup exit to Crystal Palace – and Slot’s decision to make 10 changes, rest his regulars and pack his bench with novices – brought different questions about his

- By Richard Jolly

Arne Slot has been scrutinising teamsheets. Not his own, either. Liverpool’s Carabao Cup exit to Crystal Palace – and Slot’s decision to make 10 changes, rest his regulars and pack his bench with novices – brought different questions about his selectorial choices; after a seeming inability to find his best 11, his second-string side looked inadequate, boys losing to men.

But Slot looked at Chelsea, noted Liverpool were condemned to defeat at Stamford Bridge by the substitute Estevao Willian. There are two obvious ripostes. It is scarcely an original observation to note that Chelsea have stockpiled vast numbers of players in recent years, but that has tended to prompt more criticism than praise. And Liverpool’s own bench was celebrated at the start of the season when replacements made their own dramatic late interventions. One of them, Federico Chiesa, is a Euro 2020 winner who arrived at Anfield with plenty of pedigree.

On Wednesday, Slot cast his gaze to Wales, to the team Pep Guardiola picked at Swansea. “I saw [Manchester] City’s lineup and I don’t think they had one starter from the weekend, but it felt as if - if you look at their lineup - that they had played with their 11 starters," he said. Really? Because it included Divine Mukusa, an 18-year-old who has yet to play a minute in the Premier League. And it did not feature any of those who would figure at the top of the list of Guardiola’s preferred 11 starters: Erling Haaland, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Rodri, Ruben Dias, Bernardo Silva.