Liverpool out of FA Cup, but with an advantage in Premier League and Champions League?

Arne Slot lost his FA Cup bid against Plymouth Argyle but the Liverpool manager could have moved closer to winning the trophies that really matter at Anfield this season by giving his stars a day off.

Make no mistake, Plymouth ’s big 1-0 win – the Championship ’s bottom side beat the Premier League leaders and ended all talk of a quadruple – will be on the FA Cup highlights reel for years to come. But no-one at Liverpool will be too worried about being on the wrong end of a cup upset if they close the season with Premier League and Champions League titles . They could also win the Carabao Cup (they play Newcastle United in the final on March 16).

Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool came close to securing the quadruple in 2021-22 but the exploits of that campaign – Klopp’s side played the maximum number of games, having reached three finals – have already begun to fade from memory because ‘almost’ does not count for the biggest clubs. Klopp’s side won the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup , but were pipped by Manchester City to take the Premier League title , and were beaten 1-0 by Real Madrid in the Champions League final in Paris.

After winning the FA Cup fourth round tie against Cardiff City on 6 February that season, Liverpool played 28 games, up to (and including) the Champions League final against Real Madrid on 28 May. Except for the March international window, Liverpool played one game every weekend and midweek from early February to late May. Of those, they won 21, lost two and drew five.

Liverpool came close to winning it all. Indeed, a win against Madrid and a triumph against City (rather than a 2-2 draw) in April would have secured them a full house of trophies, but in the end the fatigue of pressing on all four fronts proved too much.

Slot 's side , who return to Premier League action with a rescheduled Merseyside derby against Everton at Goodison Park on Wednesday, won't have to worry about that now that they are out of the FA Cup . Indeed, the defeat at Home Park gives them more of a breathing space than you might think.

Liverpool now have a weekend off when the FA Cup fifth round tie takes place on 1-2 March (there are no Premier League games that weekend), so they go into their Champions League round of 16 tie on 4-5 March having not played for a week, after facing Newcastle in the league on 26 February. Liverpool then have a further weekend off on 29 March, when the FA Cup quarter-final takes place . This means their key players can rest up after international duty and will be fresh for the Merseyside derby at Anfield the following week.

Their home game against Tottenham Hotspur – on the weekend of the semi-final, April 26 – will also not have to be moved to a free midweek date. With Liverpool playing their away game against Aston Villa , displaced by the date of the Carabao Cup final , next week, they will now be guaranteed a free week before that game against Spurs. The week of May 13 will also be free, and by then, with two games to go, they may already have been crowned champions.

As a consequence of their fourth-round exit, Liverpool can now play a maximum of 23 games until the end of the season (15 in the Premier League , one in the Carabao Cup and seven in the Champions League ), so the benefits of losing at Plymouth are clear. That's five fewer games than Klopp's side had to play in the final weeks of the 2021-22 season, but Slot's Liverpool could end up winning more trophies.

Slot made 10 changes to his starting XI for the match against Plymouth , leaving out Virgil van Dijk , Mohamed Salah , Andy Robertson , Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister . The former Feyenoord manager stated after the match that he had no regrets about his selection.

"Most of the things we do, we do for a reason," Slot said . "We don't do them just because."

"For the last few weeks we've played two games every week. For the next few weeks we'll have to play two games in each week. So it's not only good for them every now and then to have a week where they only play one game, but also for those who were here [in Plymouth ]. They need the intensity of the game, because they can still train, but every now and then they also need to play a game."

"They also had one against PSV [a 3-2 Champions League defeat in Eindhoven on January 29]. Unfortunately we lost that one, and they had another one today, and unfortunately we lost this one as well."

Slot 's reference to his second-choice players having lost both of the games in which they were selected to play also points to the reality that, beyond the first 14-15 names in the squad, the Liverpool manager cannot count on the substitutes to perform when the big names are not available. However, after being eliminated from the FA Cup , Slot and Liverpool now have some breathing room to face the challenge of winning the treble.

They are one win away from lifting the Carabao Cup and six points clear at the top of the Premier League , having played a game less than their pursuers, so the path to success in both competitions is clear. And without the distraction of the FA Cup , success in the Champions League has become more attainable.

As embarrassing as it may seem at first glance, the defeat against Plymouth could turn out to be Liverpool 's best result this season