As heavy rain fell on Anfield, the television lens turned to the home team's technical area.
Behind coach Arne Slot and Liverpool's bench, Mohamed Salah, Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz are sitting next to each other, wrapping themselves in warm clothes to cope with the cold. The trio have scored more than 500 goals in their careers, but in this match, they can only helplessly see Liverpool fall 0-3 to Crystal Palace in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup.
Slot made 10 changes to the squad that just lost 2-3 to Brentford, and he must have anticipated the risk. With an increasingly large injury list and a tight schedule ahead, the Dutch captain is forced to calculate carefully to preserve the fitness of the pillars. Of course, that cost Liverpool a heavy defeat at home.
However, as Slot himself emphasized, failure never brings the positive. Statistics show that Liverpool have lost 6/7 of their most recent matches in all competitions. A crisis is threatening to sink into their seemingly promising season.
Now, the prospect of winning a title for Slot's team is more distant than ever. For the first time in three years, Liverpool will be absent from Wembley, after receiving a double from Ismaila Sarr and Yeremy Pino to seal a 3-0 win for Crystal Palace.
In this match, only Milos Kerkez kept his starting position compared to the defeat against Brentford, while Andy Robertson paired with Joe Gomez in the center of defense. Calvin Ramsay made his first debut in 3 years, while goalkeeper Freddie Woodman and 18-year-old talent Kieran Morrison were also given a chance.
Despite almost all changes to the squad, Liverpool started quite brightly thanks to Rio Ngumoha's explosive dribbling on the left wing. But when Sarr opened the scoring in the 41st minute after Gomez cleared the ball, the game was completely in favor of the visitors.
The Senegalese player completed his double right before the break, before Pino sealed the score in the second half, helping Palace go on a 4-match unbeaten streak against Liverpool - for the first time in history.
Without a key squad, Slot was helpless to turn things around. His substitutes have only made a total of nine first-team appearances, and that immaturity was clearly shown when Amara Nallo was sent off just 12 minutes after coming on for a foul that blocked a scoring opportunity.
The 18-year-old was sent off in both of his Liverpool appearances - a 3-2 defeat to PSV Eindhoven in February and a recent defeat to Crystal Palace.
However, the responsibility for this poor result does not belong to Nallo but to Slot, who is going through the most difficult period of his coaching career. In two consecutive matches, the Dutch strategist had to hear the chants of "years tomorrow morning you will be fired!" from the opponent's stands.
"I don't think that if you lose five of the six games - or six of the seven games - you can take any more pressure. If you are Liverpool, you know the pressure is always there.
I don't think this defeat will change much, but the positive thing is that even though I was behind 0-2 and didn't create many opportunities, the fans still cheered me wholeheartedly. I believe that on Saturday, when the players show fighting spirit, they will receive that support again" - Slot shared when asked about his future.
In fact, Slot is not the first manager to rotate the squad in the cup. Previously, Jurgen Klopp did the same, deploying a youth squad to beat Everton and Shrewsbury Town in the 2019-2020 FA Cup - a campaign in which Liverpool won the Premier League.
The applause from home fans after the loss to Palace shows that Slot still receives certain support at Merseyside. However, given a number of key players a break, he has put himself in a difficult position ahead of the Aston Villa clash this weekend. Now, Slot can only hope that his gambling will not be counterproductive.
