Slot admits Liverpool below expectations in Plymouth defeat

Arne Slot was made to pay for resting his star names as Plymouth Argyle knocked the Premier League leaders out of the FA Cup with a 1-0 at Home Park earlier on Sunday. Having suffered just his fourth defeat in 38 games as Liverpool boss, the Dutchman's dream for an unprecedented quadruple in his first season in England was denied by Ryan Hardie's goal from the penalty spot.
But the disappointing turnout of events did not stop Slot from congratulating the Championship side, who registered a win over the Reds for the first time since 1956. "It's a great day for Plymouth," Slot told ITV Sport after the match. "They had a good gameplan and they deserve all the credit for their performance today. We were not having a very good day, and a result like this is the outcome."
The former Feyenoord head coach added: "I don't think I can say the boys didn't fight, because it was a fight for 100 minutes. Both teams didn't really create many chances and the game was decided by a penalty that was awarded correctly. But in a game like this where the teams aren't able to find many openings it is up to one moment and that moment was for them, and like I said they deserved it because they played a really good game."
With a Merseyside derby at Goodison Park on the horizon, the Liverpool boss admitted that he was hurt by the defeat, especially given that his players did not perform up to his expectations. "I think (the players) are able to do better, but this is a playing style that is quite hard to create your chances against, which is what we saw today," he said. "But we expected to play a better game than this, but we give credit to Plymouth as well."
Slot rounded off his thoughts as he said: "It hurts everyone that's involved with Liverpool, fans, me, players, we were all wanting to be in this competition but if you go out in one of the first possible games that's a setback. Today we kept on fighting until the last second. Maybe the only chances we created were in the last 10-15 minutes, so it wasn't a work rate problem, but we couldn't find openings and chances."