Arne Slot gives Richard Hughes HUGE question to answer

Arne Slot has been ridiculed for his complaints over Liverpool’s squad depth in the aftermath of a 3-0 battering against Crystal Palace.

The Liverpool head coach started with three teenagers for the home fixture against the Eagles in the EFL Cup. Goals from Ismaila Sarr - twice - and Yeremy Pino condemned the Reds to defeat.

It represents a sixth loss in seven games. Rather than attempt to stanch the bleeding with a convincing win against Palace it appeared that Slot waved the white flag instead.

We saw Rio Ngumoha, Trey Nyoni and Kieran Morrison all start the game with four more academy hopefuls coming off the bench.

Amara Nallo, Wellity Lucky, Kaide Gordon and Trent Kone-Doherty all featured at Anfield but in truth Liverpool were never in a position to turn the game around.

We didn’t see Alisson Becker, nor Giorgi Mamardashvili for that matter, Conor Bradley, Jeremie Frimpong, Ibrahima Konate, Virgil van Dijk, Dominik Szoboszlai, Curtis Jones, Ryan Gravenberch, Mohamed Salah, Hugo Ekitike, Florian Wirtz, Cody Gakpo or Alexander Isak to name just a few.

With matches against Aston Villa, Real Madrid and Manchester City to come before the international window, Slot deemed it wise to keep his top talents fresh.

Arne Slot makes squad depth complaint

That of course had the knock-on effect of seeing Palace run riot. And following the game Slot compared what he had at his disposal to Premier League rivals like Manchester City and Chelsea - also in action in the Carabao Cup last night.

“Before I went out I saw City’s line up and I don’t think they had one starter from the weekend, but it felt if you look at their line up, like they played with eleven starters,” he said.

“So maybe it gives a little bit of an insight. Everyone’s always said what a big squad we’re having…when we played Chelsea I said they’re missing eight but they can still bring Estevao in.

“Now we’re only missing four players at the moment and we already needed to start with four players under the age of 19. And after I made two substitutions, we were on six.”

Liverpool's fragile squad depth exposed

There are injuries - Isak, Jones, Frimpong, Alisson, Gravenberch and Giovanni Leoni were all deemed unavailable. But fans - and rivals - pointed to the fact that Liverpool spent some £450m on new talents last summer.

How can they possibly have a problem with squad depth? Well it’s not so much a problem with who they brought in - it’s who they let go.

Richard Hughes needed to balance the books in a sense and for that reason we saw the club cut around £200m worth of players loose.

For a delicate financial balance - not to mention room in the wage budget - big cuts were necessary. That’s why we saw Caoimhin Kelleher, Jarell Quansah, Kostas Tsimikas, Tyler Morton, Harvey Elliott, Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz all leave.

Liverpool's summer of sales

Other cash was raised by selling Ben Gannon-Doak, Nat Phillips and of course Trent Alexander-Arnold. Don’t forget the loss of Diogo Jota either in the most tragic of circumstances.

But there is little doubt that the contingent named above would have been featured against Palace had they not been sold to balance the books.

So that’s why Slot’s complaint DOES have substance. Liverpool simply could not stack talent on top of talent; unlike City or Chelsea, they had to clear the decks.

And so when injuries begin to bite - and certain top stars need a rest - there is a hollowness to how the team looks.

It always looked a risk - selling so many players who were bedded in, who had won trophies and had the experience of topping the Premier League.

Right now there simply isn’t the same quality in reserve as teams elsewhere - and Slot is well aware of it. However, he is going to have to figure out a way to win matches - with or without the stars he was given over the summer.

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