Arne Slot must answer three AWKWARD questions ahead of Carabao Cup final

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot has taken gigantic strides in his first season at the club. The Reds look a certainty to win the Premier League title - their first in five years - and are favourites for the EFL Cup too.

He has made improvements in the performance levels of several first-team stars too - including Ibrahima Konate, Ryan Gravenberch and Cody Gakpo in particular.

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Things have progressed serenely in the Premier League - thanks in no small part to a record-breaking start. However it would be only fair to acknowledge that Liverpool have suffered some setbacks along the way.

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They had a humiliating early exit in the FA Cup fourth round away at Plymouth with the lack of depth in the squad acutely exposed. Then came Champions League disappointment in their last-16 elimination against Paris Saint-Germain.

Arne Slot has questions to answer

The Reds qualified for the round of 16 top of the league phase but were unable to survive even one knockout round. A defeat on penalty kicks at Anfield on Tuesday has brought with it plenty of soul-searching in the aftermath.

Critics haven’t spared Slot following the defeat, with some of his decisions on the night and in the lead-up now under scrutiny. Without another knockout game against Newcastle on Sunday, Slot has got some thinking to do.

Valentijn Driessen of De Telegraaf, an influential voice in Dutch football, has called on Slot to answer THREE key questions following the Anfield reverse.

Was NOT strengthening in January a mistake?

“Was it a mistake to not strengthen the selection qualitatively in January so as not to be completely dependent on Salah?” writes Driessen.

We were assured in January that the priority for Richard Hughes was to renew the contracts for Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold. As such, no incoming business was expected.

Former Liverpool targets in the shape of Omar Marmoush, Nico Gonzalez, Patrick Dorgu, Amar Dedic and Stefanos Tzimas all ended up elsewhere whereas the Reds kept their hands in their pockets.

And Driessen’s assertion that Liverpool are dependent on Salah certainly has a degree of truth. The winger has got a staggering 32 goals and 22 assists across all competitions this season.

Only two other players - Cody Gakpo and Luis Diaz - have reached double figures in goalscoring. A counterpoint might be that Slot has optimised the team to get the best out of Salah.

But as we saw in his battle against Nuno Mendes, when Salah is quietened, Liverpool rarely have the quality to make up for it elsewhere.

Liverpool's small core

“Did Slot ask too much of a core of fifteen permanent players?” asks Driessen.

Maybe the journalist is wrong here because you could probably reduce that number to around 12 or 13. Twelve Liverpool players have started 33 games or more in all competitions and this doesn’t include Alisson Becker, who has missed games through injury.

Slot clearly has his favourites and the FA Cup defeat to Plymouth - as well as the loss to PSV in the Champions League - shows the fringe players aren’t at the same level.

It means the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Luis Diaz, Mohamed Salah, Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister in particular are asked to get through trojan amounts of work.

We are fortunate that Liverpool’s core group is so robust but signs of exhaustion are beginning to show in certain players, such as Gravenberch.

Meanwhile Slot could not use Mac Allister nor Dominik Szoboszlai for penalties as they had been substituted in extra-time.

Were Liverpool fresh enough?

“How could Slot think that Liverpool could make the difference in extra time after ninety minutes because his team would be fitter than PSG?” Driessen wrote.

PSG had a tough-looking Ligue 1 fixture last weekend away at Rennes. In preparations for the Liverpool game, head coach Luis Enrique nonetheless opted to rest EIGHT of his starters.

Only Willian Pacho, Joao Neves and Bradley Barcola retained their places from that side for Anfield. Slot, by contrast, called on eight of the side who played PSG to feature from the start against Southampton in the Premier League last weekend.

And several of his players simply didn’t have enough in the tank on Tuesday with Trent Alexander-Arnold and Ibrahima Konate also going off injured.

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Ahead of the cup final - with the potential for another period of extra-time and a penalty shootout - would be advised to scrutinise this list closely.

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