Liverpool take MASSIVE step towards historic treble after Plymouth defeat

Liverpool’s shock defeat to Plymouth Argyle in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Sunday felt disastrous.

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Arne Slot’s side tasted defeated against the team currently bottom of the Championship, but that might not have been a bad thing.

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The Reds fielded a much-changed side, and youngsters such a Trey Nyoni and James McConnell were given an opportunity, albeit one neither player managed to properly take advantage of.

Although defeat of any kind is never a good thing, and Slot and his players will have wanted to win Sunday’s game, the fallout from the defeat can be mitigated by looking at the bigger picture.

The positive of Liverpool’s defeat

There can be a few small wins taken from the unexpected exit from the FA Cup, most notably when looking at the Reds’ fixture list for the upcoming weeks.

Liverpool are about to begin an extremely tough run, in which they will play five Premier League matches in just 14 days starting with the Merseyside derby at Goodison Park, and this may have been part of the reason Slot chose to rotate so heavily for the Plymouth clash.

That run will be difficult for the Reds to navigate, but when looking beyond the next two weeks the benefit of going out of the FA Cup becomes clear.

Because they failed to progress to the next round of the FA Cup, Liverpool will now only play four times in March and only once in the Premier League, a luxury that is rarely afforded to teams battling it out for both domestic and continental success.

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Liverpool’s triple trophy push

Slot’s side won’t be completing a historic quadruple this season, and that fact alone could be seen as a positive as some of the pressure will be off now, but a treble is still very much on the cards for Liverpool.

The Reds sit six points clear at the top of the Premier League with a game in hand, and they also still have to play second place Arsenal at Anfield.

Liverpool also topped the inaugural Champions League ‘league phase’ and have automatically progressed to the competitions round of 16, bypassing the next play off round.

There is also of course the Carabao Cup final against Newcastle, Liverpool’s third in five years, that is set to take place on 16 March.

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The FA Cup defeat will be a hard one to swallow, but in reality it may have just pushed Liverpool one step closer to a treble in Arne Slot’s maiden season.

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