Arne Slot says there were two reasons he took Isaac Mabaya off after bringing him on for Liverpool debut against Plymouth

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Liverpool had to take an embarrassing defeat on the chin on Sunday after being dumped out of the FA Cup by Plymouth Argyle.

The Pilgrims fully deserved their win having got the better of a much-changed Reds team at Home Park.

Liverpool were comfortable favourites to go through to the fifth round despite leaving almost a full regular starting XI back at home on Merseyside.

But the game started in less than convincing fashion for the Reds, with Joe Gomez going off with an injury barely 10 minutes into proceedings.

In his place came Isaac Mabaya. Despite being in and around the first team Liverpool squad during pre-seasons past, Sunday’s FA Cup game represented Mabaya’s senior debut for the Reds.

However, things turned sour for the 20-year-old when he was substituted off for Darwin Nunez before the hour mark. Having taken off the man he’d only brought on 50 minutes or so before, Arne Slot explained himself at full-time.

Arne Slot explains Isaac Mabaya substitution

Mabaya was thrown into a difficult situation at Home Park. Liverpool had not started well and would arguably go on to only get worse.

In isolation, the youngster did not do a bad job. He did pick up a silly booking, though, which according to Slot played a big part in his decision to withdraw Mabaya early in the second-half.

“I think it’s a fantastic moment for every player to make his debut, for him as well,” began the Liverpool head coach when asked what he’d told the right-back when taking him off.

“But I felt I had to take him off for two reasons. He was already on a yellow and it was a game with a lot of duels, a lot of intensity, that’s their playing style.”

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“They put a lot of long balls in so if you’re wrong one time it’s a yellow again. It was a game that was hard enough with 11 let alone 10.”

“I also felt we had to make an offensive substitution and the other three were Jarell, Wata and Kostas and it didn’t seem smart to me to take one of those three off,” Slot added.

“So, that led to that decision. I felt I had to tell him because making your debut and to then be taken off after an hour or something like that is very disappointing for him of course.”

Did any other youngster get on against Plymouth?

While it was a disappointing debut for Mabaya, he can at least console himself that it was not as bad a fate as Amara Nallo suffered when playing for the first time in January.

On Sunday, though, the better Liverpool debut belonged to Trent Kone-Doherty.

Kone-Doherty has been excellent in the academy this season and it was a great moment to see him get on for the final 15 minutes in the FA Cup.

Although he didn’t see loads of the ball, the 18-year-old showed some glimpses of why he’s so highly rated within the Liverpool academy.

Better days will lie ahead for both Mabaya and Kone-Doherty. But whatever the conditions of the game, they should be proud that they are now up and running for Liverpool.