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Liverpool put in a gutless display at Wembley to lose the Carabao Cup final against Newcastle on Sunday.

The Reds had hopes of making it back-to-back wins in the competition, but came up short against an energised Magpies team.

Anyone can lose a cup final, it is a shootout at the best of times, with so many factors at play on the day.

However, to turn in a sloppy, lethargic performance like Liverpool did on the biggest stage is simply unforgivable.

So many out there in red should hang their heads in shame.

And having done so much right this season, head coach Arne Slot should not be immune to plenty of the blame.

Slot made the baffling decision to leave Alexis Mac Allister up against giant Toon centre-back Dan Burn on Newcastle set-pieces.

Despite Burn getting plenty of joy, Slot did not change his plan.

After the defender eventually scored, the Liverpool head coach came out post-game to explain his thinking.

Photo by Michelle Mercer/Newcastle United via Getty Images

Mac Allister marking Burn from set-plays looked like an accident waiting to happen throughout the first-half at Wembley.

But despite Burn winning header after header against the little Argentine, Liverpool appeared to make no attempt to change things.

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Asked to explain this seemingly suicidal tactic during his post-match press conference, Slot gave a garbled and – to be frank – unjustifiable answer.

“I can explain,” smiled the Dutchman, clearly expecting the question.

“Normally a player like Burn runs to the zone because normally, I think he is an exception, I have never in my life seen a player from that far away heading a ball with so much force into the far corner.”

If Burn had been getting free and winning the ball once or twice, then this explanation would have been fine from Slot.

Newcastle had clearly been working on their approach to set-pieces and this was a deliberate ploy from Eddie Howe.

You can get caught out by that once or twice.

But to see it happen more than that and to not fix the problem is inexcusable from Slot and the Liverpool coaching staff.

Failing to address the issue having had plenty of opportunity to do so deserved to be punished, and that’s exactly what happened.

Not good enough from Slot, Mac Allister and the rest of the Liverpool defence.
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