Arne Slot defends Liverpool selection but pressure builds after Carabao Cup exit

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“It’s always a blow to lose a game, especially when it leads to going out of a competition, but it’s the same selection I did last season in these rounds,” said the head coach, who hopes to have Ryan Gravenberch back from injury on Saturday.“There are many reasons why we’ve lost six out of seven, none of them are good enough to accept ­losing so many. Liverpool losing that many is always too much.

Our performance against Brentford, two days after we played Frankfurt away, I saw a team that struggled with ­playing three games in seven days.“In two days, we play Villa and the last time I played a player I thought was ready for that programme was Alexander Isak, but it turns out he wasn’t and went out with an injury.“In the last round we played Southampton and Giovanni Leoni was injured and we got two yellow cards for Hugo Ekitiké. With our starters we haven’t been able to beat Palace as well.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionSlot acknowledged he was under pressure to arrest Liverpool’s slump before the Carabao Cup exit.

“I don’t think it’s possible that if you lose five out of six, that losing six out of seven there is even more pressure,” he said. I don’t think it has changed much after this loss.”