Arne Slot acknowledges his mistake, admitting that he should have included the Liverpool star in the starting lineup against Newcastle.

Arne Slot has acknowledged that he may have made a mistake by not making more changes to his team for Liverpool’s Carabao Cup final loss to Newcastle United. The Reds were defeated 2-1 at Wembley, with Slot only making two adjustments to the lineup from the midweek loss to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League. Caoimhin Kelleher replaced Alisson Becker in goal, and Jarell Quansah started at right-back for the injured Trent Alexander-Arnold.

After the back-to-back defeats, some critics suggested that Slot should have rotated his squad more. Reflecting on the match, Slot admitted that in hindsight, he might have made additional changes, particularly in midfield where he felt Wataru Endo deserved to start. However, he also noted that the loss was not just a matter of being outworked by Newcastle but rather due to conceding a corner, which he argued was unrelated to the team’s physical efforts.

Slot also mentioned that while it might have been a surprise to substitute players early in the match, he did bring in attacking options later, such as Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott, and Federico Chiesa, to strengthen the team in search of a goal. He concluded by acknowledging that, in hindsight, he could have substituted players earlier, but recognized the challenges of making such decisions during a match. Despite the loss, Slot maintained that there was a logical reasoning behind his initial team selection.