Press conference: Arne Slot on Liverpool's Carabao Cup loss to Crystal Palace

Goals from Ismaila Sarr (two) and Yeremy Pino saw the much-changed Reds fall to a 3-0 defeat on Wednesday night.

Sarr struck twice shortly before half-time and, following substitute Amara Nallo's sending-off for the hosts, Pino completed the scoring in the 88th minute.

See what Slot had to say in his post-match press conference…

Read our match report from Anfield here

On his disappointment at the result and whether he has 'any regrets' over his team selection...

It is always a blow to lose a game of football, especially if it leads to going out of a competition. But it is the same selection I did tonight as I did last season in rounds like this. There are many reasons, maybe, why we've lost six out of seven – none of them are good enough to accept losing so many. I can come up with arguments or reasons, but none of them will be enough to go to that standard because at Liverpool losing six out of seven is always too much.

If I look at our performance against Brentford, to use that as an example, two days after we played [Eintracht] Frankfurt away, I saw there a team that maybe struggled with playing three games in seven days. Again, not an excuse to lose that game of football, but it is not a complete surprise to me if I see some of the struggles some players have had in pre-season and players that came from different leagues and it is a new challenge for them to play at Premier League and Champions League level in three games in seven days.

So, again, in two days we play [Aston] Villa and the last time I played a player we thought was ready for their programme but it turned out maybe he wasn't was Alexander Isak when he went out with an injury [at Frankfurt]. Last time we played Southampton, Giovanni Leoni went out with an injury in a game like this and we got the red card for Hugo Ekitike after two yellows.

I think at this moment in time, with only 15 or 16 players available – and I am talking then about players of our squad available – and to add to that this club has always used this competition to use their academy players as well – the non-starters and the academy players – it felt to me as the right decision and I haven't changed my opinion about that after the result because with our starters we haven't been able to win a lot from Palace as well.

On whether there will be 'more pressure' on Liverpool for Saturday's fixture with Aston Villa having rested several senior players...

I don't think it is possible if you lose six out of seven that there is even more pressure. If you are on a run of results like this, if you play for Liverpool, if you manage Liverpool, you know the pressure is there. I don't think it has changed much after this loss, but if it did then maybe the most positive thing about tonight was the position we were in, 2-0 down and we weren't really pushing for a goal because we weren't able to, the fans were behind the team and supporting us. That gives me the feeling on Saturday when our players will show how much it means to them, our fans will be incredibly supportive for us on Saturday. Again, we face a team that has rested in the week to play us and that's Villa.

On deciding who was part of the matchday squad...

I'm not too sure that it is right what you are saying because when we played West Ham [in last season's Carabao Cup third round] I don't think [Mohamed] Salah was on the bench. But maybe I'm wrong, you are right – but I don't think he was. So a year ago, I did, we did, the same but maybe the line-up felt differently. I said this also for the television that before I went out I saw [Manchester] City's line-up and I don't think they had one starter from the weekend, but it felt as if you looked at their line-up that they played with 11 starters. Maybe it also gives a little bit of insight that everybody has always said how big of a squad we are having. When we played Chelsea, I said they are missing eight but they can still bring Estevao in. We are only missing four players at the moment and already we needed to start with four players under the age of 19 and after I made two substitutions we were on six.

On whether 'there is anything he can say to Nallo'...

I didn't need to say that much. Because another thing which I liked – it's not the most important thing – but Ibou [Konate] and Virgil [van Dijk] immediately went inside to talk to him. So that tells me that they are great human beings in a moment like this when a young player for the second time is being sent off – maybe the first time after he played against PSV [Eindhoven], I'm not 100 per cent sure, but I think he did – that they feel how difficult that moment for him is, to go inside and be supportive for him. So it wasn't needed that I took care of him. These two already took care of him.

On Calvin Ramsay's performance and the formation used...

Before I answer the first one, I got the same question a second ago, when we play teams that are playing 5-2-3, it has mostly been that Ryan Gravenberch then is taking the inverted left winger, so then you're also defending with five. It is not for the first time that we build up with three players as well, so I wouldn't see too much into that. I think Calvin had a very, very decent performance. Calm on the ball. I don't know if I said it over here but [in] the first half-hour, I think we had better chances than them actually and he was part of that. He played with composure. A decent-to-good game for him. And I said also afterwards if you make your debut after a 3-0 loss, you might feel very, very disappointed – but the two of you can be quite happy with the way you've played in your first time here at Anfield.

Arne Slot on possible Ryan Gravenberch return against Aston Villa

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