It is not a crisis to be eliminated from the Carabao Cup by this excellent Crystal Palace side. Not with 10 changes, including two debutants in the starting 11, three teenagers beginning the game, and a creche on the bench. Not even when it was Arne Slot’s heaviest defeat as Liverpool manager.
But for him and them, a second successive Anfield beating nevertheless compounded the wider sense that the wheels have fallen off, suddenly and stunningly. “There are many reasons why we have lost six out of seven,” said Slot. “None are good enough to accept losing so many.” Liverpool have now lost each of their last six games in England. It is the sort of run which would have felt inconceivable when they went to Selhurst Park little more than a month ago, boasting a 100 per cent record in both the Premier and the Champions League. In a rematch, Palace reinforced the sense they are Liverpool’s bogey side, and Ismaila Sarr their bogey player.
