Arne Slot Press Conference: Plymouth Argyle 1-0 Liverpool

The Reds bowed out of the competition at Home Park on Sunday afternoon, with a Ryan Hardie penalty securing victory for the hosts in Devon.

Read on to see what the head coach had to say about the fourth round match...

On his thoughts on the game...

The result is obvious, it's a big disappointment, and the way we played [there] was nothing to be happy about either. The only thing I was happy about was that the boys kept fighting for 100 minutes and probably the best part of our game was the last 10 minutes. So that tells you that they kept fighting. But thanks to them, to a good game plan, they worked really hard and they got a deserved penalty, because it was a clear penalty, a correct decision. But that had a big impact on the game, of course, because both teams hardly had any chances and suddenly you get a penalty shot.

Again, it was the right decision, but they were winning 1-0 and kept fighting until the end. In the end, the goalkeeper made one or two good saves, but we achieved almost nothing.

On whether he "regretted" his team selection...

No, because you never know what would happen if we had played with our starters here. I think we have seen during this season (we have seen it several times already) that it is a game plan, a style of play, that is difficult for our starters, but also for those who have played today.

So, long balls constantly, second balls, long balls, second balls. It's difficult for every team. We also had it with [Manchester] United at home, for example. They had a similar style of play: very low blocks [and then] they kicked all the long balls. And then we played with our starters, and I think today we also showed why we played with the players we played with today, because these players also need game rhythm. In order for them to be ready in the next few months, they need game time, and today you saw that some of these players really need games like this to be ready for the last three months of the season.

Sensing that there would be a draw in the flurry of opportunities at the end...

Yes, there were one or two big chances, but I think if a team tries so hard and goes for every ball, it has a certain momentum. Then maybe you deserve a bit of luck at the end as well. Then the goalkeeper made one or two great saves, but this is what you see a lot: if he had played 10 to 15 percent less, or worked 10 to 15 percent less, we probably would have scored. But you often see that if a team puts in a performance like that, like you saw yesterday with [Manchester] City, they miss a big chance at the end for the other team. So sometimes you deserve a bit of luck if you work as hard as Plymouth did today.

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On what the schedule has been like for the players who were left out of the squad...

They trained yesterday and will train again tomorrow. Most of the things we do we do for a reason, we just don't do them suddenly. I've said before that we have to play a lot of games now. The Aston Villa game is also taking place during the week again. In the last few weeks we have played twice a week.

The next few weeks we will have to play two games each time. So it is not only for them that from time to time they have a week where they only play one game, but also for those who have been here today, they need the intensity of the game because you can still train with them, but from time to time they also need a game. They also had it against PSV, unfortunately we lost it, and they had it today and unfortunately we also lost this one again.

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On what he said to Isaac Mabaya after firing him, since he had been replaced previously on...

I think it's a fantastic time for all the players to make their debuts and for him as well. But I felt I had to take him off for two reasons. He was already playing in yellow and it was a game with a lot of duels and a lot of intensity, and that's his style of play.

There are a lot of long balls coming in, so if you make one mistake, it's yellow again, and it was a tough enough game with 11, let alone 10. I felt like we had to make an offensive change and the other three were Jarell [Quansah], Wata [Endo] and Kostas [Tsimikas] and it didn't seem smart to take one of those three off. I made that decision and I thought I had to tell him because making your debut and being kicked off after an hour or something is very disappointing for him, of course.