Slot points finger at Liverpool stars after humbling defeat to Plymouth

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot says there was a lot his team could have done better after losing to Plymouth in the FA Cup.

A second-half penalty was the difference in the game, but the Reds struggled to create chances at 0-0.

After a week of highs having made the Carabao Cup final again, Slot swallowed his humble pie with no complaints.

He said: “I think they’re able to do better. But it’s a system and a playing style [from Plymouth] which is quite hard to create chances against

“That’s what we saw today. I wasn’t surprised because in the lead up to this game, we saw lots of long balls, second balls, and if we had the ball, they were really aggressive. That was expected.

“It’s not always easy to create your chances when the team has not played with each other so many times. We expected them to play a better game than this, but we have to give credit to Plymouth as well.

🗣️ “Great game from Plymouth, they deserve all the credit for their performance today.”

No excuses from Arne Slot after Liverpool crash out of the FA Cup#FACup | #LFC | 🎙️ @gabrielclarke05 pic.twitter.com/S2ajCp1BYT

— ITV Football (@itvfootball) February 9, 2025

“I think it hurts everyone. That includes Liverpool fans, me, the players. We were all wanting to be in this competition for as long as possible. If you go out in the first possible game, that’s a sad manner.

“Today, they kept on fighting until the last second. Maybe the only chances we created were in the last five, 10, 15 minutes. It wasn’t a work-rate problem, they worked really hard, but they couldn’t find openings and they couldn’t find chances.

“We just have to keep doing the work-rate the same. We have to be a bit more creative in the coming games.”