Arne Slot reveals the ‘only thing’ he was happy about during Liverpool’s shock FA Cup defeat to Plymouth

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Liverpool fans are waking up on Monday morning with an almighty FA Cup hangover.

The Reds had been expected to breeze through against bottom-of-the-Championship Plymouth Argyle, but instead found themselves dumped out at the fourth round.

Given the team Arne Slot took down to Devon, the defeat was perhaps not as unexpected as it may initially seem.

Still, the Liverpool XI out on the pitch at Home Park should have performed a whole lot better than it did.

There was plenty of experience mixed with the youth of the travelling Liverpool squad, but with so many under-performers on the day, the Reds simply never got going.

But even on what was probably his worst day as Liverpool head coach so far, Slot was still able to take one positive back home to Merseyside.

Arne Slot happy with Liverpool fight

We’d argue that there was more than one positive for Liverpool despite a sea of negativity washing in after a shock cup defeat.

Trent Kone-Doherty was lively from the bench on his senior debut, for example, while although Federico Chiesa has been slammed for his performance, it was 90 more minutes in the Italian’s legs.

There were some others besides, even though it may not feel like it just yet. And according to Slot, his biggest takeaway was that his team kept going right until the end despite the difficult circumstances.

“The result is obvious, it’s a big disappointment, and the way we played [there] wasn’t a lot to be happy about as well,” the Dutchman said in his post-match press conference.

READ MORE: When the FA Cup fifth round will be played and how it will impact Liverpool’s fixture list after crashing out

“The only thing I was happy about is that the boys kept on fighting for 100 minutes and probably the best part of our game were the last 10 minutes.”

So, that tells you that they kept on fighting. But credit to them [Plymouth], a good game plan, they worked incredibly hard and they got a penalty that was deserved, because it was a clear penalty; a correct decision. But that had a lot of impact on the game, of course, because both teams hardly had any chances and all of a sudden you get a penalty kick.

“Again, which was the correct decision, but they were 1-0 up and kept on fighting until the end. The goalkeeper made one or two good saves in the end, but we hardly created anything at all.”

Liverpool must correct FA Cup slip on Wednesday

While the result and performance was really disappointing on Sunday, the simply truth is that Liverpool have bigger fish to fry this season.

To lovers of the FA Cup, that might seem like blasphemy, but the fact is that the competition has lost its allure in recent decades.

Slot’s eyes were – rightly – focused on Wednesday’s Merseyside Derby with Everton.

If Liverpool pick up three points at Goodison Park and move nine points clear at the top of the Premier League table, few will still be hung up on Sunday’s defeat.

Another poor result, though, and things could suddenly start to spiral. It’ll be a much, much different Liverpool team at Goodison, but they have to be better. No excuses.