Forget the rest: 128-touch Liverpool battering ram shone amid spineless FA Cup showing

Well… there’s not much else to be said after that performance other than Liverpool were deserved losers on the balance of play.

Credit to a renewed Plymouth, following the sacking of Wayne Rooney, who looked far more up for the fight by comparison to Arne Slot’s sluggish, albeit heavily changed, first-XI.

Criticism has already been aimed the Dutch head coach’s way for his refusal to bring along the heavy artillery – including the likes of Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk – to the southwest of England.

But in the former Feyenoord boss’ defence, what else was he supposed to do? From the Merseyside derby (Wednesday, February 17) to our hosting of Newcastle United at Anfield (Wednesday, February 26), Liverpool are due to play four Premier League fixtures in 14 days.

Something had to give, and Slot went with a side that should, with the greatest of respect to Plymouth, have been capable of securing passage through to the next round of the FA Cup.

What a shame it was to see the clash potentially cost the Reds Joe Gomez’s fitness too!

Wataru Endo was a cut above the rest

There weren’t terrible performances from Kostas Tsimikas and James McConnell, but frankly, as far as we’re concerned here at Empire of the Kop – Wataru Endo was the absolute standout.

The Japanese international put in a restless display at the Home Park stadium, racking up 128 touches as we succumbed to only our fourth defeat (in all competitions) under Arne Slot.

Sofascore handed the former Stuttgart skipper a 7.2/10 rating after picking up:

→ 90% pass success rate (98/109)

→ 3/9 long balls completed

→ 2/3 ground duels won

→ 7/11 aerial duels won

→ Possession lost 14 times

→ 7 clearances

→ 1 blocked shot

→ 3 interceptions

There’ll be no final verdicts made on our underperforming senior stars, but some – Diogo Jota and Federico Chiesa amongst them – should most certainly be taking a long hard look at themselves in the mirror after such an appalling outing away from home.

The only way is up from here.

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The post Forget the rest: 128-touch Liverpool battering ram shone amid spineless FA Cup showing appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.