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Stephen Warnock has hit out at Arne Slot’s comments following Liverpool’s latest defeat, accusing the Reds boss of “making excuses”.
Liverpool fell to its sixth defeat in the last seven games as a much-changed side was comfortably beaten 3-0 by Crystal Palace in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday.
Slot has faced a lot of criticism from fans and pundits for the squad he selected at Anfield. Milos Kerkez was the only player to keep his place in the side following the weekend defeat to Brentford, while not a single first-team star was named on the bench, with academy players filling it instead.
Despite some of the backlash, Slot insisted he needed to make wholesale changes, having suggested that his side has been struggling with the workload of playing in three competitions.
"Our squad is probably not as big as people think it is," Slot said after Wednesday’s game.
"Against Brentford it was two days after we played Eintracht Frankfurt away and I saw a team that is struggling to play three games in seven days.
"It's a new challenge to play in the Premier League and Champions League, three games in seven days.”
Those comments did not go down well with former Liverpool defender Warnock though, who didn’t hold back in his assessment of what he deemed to be “excuses” from the Reds boss.
"Arne Slot has almost admitted there that the squad is not strong enough," Warnock said on BBC Radio 5 Live. "It was very much deflecting and making excuses.
"You're a team in the Champions League, yet you're moaning that you're playing a game two days later. You know that is going to happen. I felt there were a lot of excuses in there.
“You know your squad depth isn't the best, then your business hasn't been good enough in the summer. It is as simple as that.
“I know players get injuries along the way, but build a squad capable of dealing with it. He sounded down and like he didn't have the answers people were looking for."
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Liverpool.com says: It’s not a great look from Slot to be suggesting the squad isn’t big enough after the summer overhaul Liverpool had. His comments are all the more concerning when you consider the Reds had exactly the same workload last season, and were absolutely flying in three competitions at the same stage.
Making wholesale changes to the starting XI was probably the right call, considering the Carabao Cup is bottom on the list of priorities at the moment, but he perhaps should have named at least one or two first-team players on the bench as backup, and to at least prove he wasn’t just throwing in the towel on this competition.
It puts a lot more pressure on what was already a must-win game against Aston Villa this weekend. Liverpool needs to get out of this habit of losing games as soon as possible.
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