Liverpool and Arne Slot get in on this whole ‘six-seven’ business

OFF THE BANDWAGON?

Having started the season playing badly but still managing to emerge victorious from every game, the widespread assumption was that Liverpool would inevitably get their act together, improve their performances and continue said winning streak. On the contrary, their level of performance has dipped even further and, in the process, they have become the first team in English top-flight history to win their opening five matches and then lose the next four. And while there’s no getting away from the fact that four consecutive Premier League defeats constitutes something of a crisis for the reigning champions, Football Daily is simply not prepared to accept that a team comprised almost entirely of whey-faced youngsters and senior reserves getting knocked out of Fizzy Cup by Crystal Palace should in any way be lumped into the same bracket as previous defeats. A cursory glance at both team-sheets before kick-off on Wednesday night suggested anything other than defeat for Liverpool’s C team would constitute an upset and have little or nothing in common with Arne Slot’s actual first team getting beaten in consecutive league matches by Palace, Chelsea, Manchester United and Brentford.

Having taken his players on away trips to London, Istanbul, London, Frankfurt and London again in five of their six matches leading up to this defeat at Anfield, Arne Slot decided that, with big games against Aston Villa and Real Madrid coming up, the tie against Palace was an ideal time to give most of his senior players a collective duvet day. His decision not to include them on the substitutes’ bench at least, in case of everything going sideways, subsequently attracted criticism, presumably from the kind of people who habitually turn up to and hang around their workplaces during their officially designated downtime, appropriately dressed and ready to step in just in case whoever happens to be providing cover for them isn’t up to the job. “It’s always a blow to lose a game, especially when it leads to going out of a competition but it’s the same selection I did last season in these rounds,” sighed Slot. “Our performance against Brentford, two days after we played Frankfurt away, I saw a team that struggled with ­playing three games in seven days.”

While Liverpool’s players might be struggling to cope with their current match schedule, it’s nothing compared to what Palace could face as their reward for swatting Slot’s kids aside: a potential scheduling nightmare. Drawn to play their quarter-final away at Arsenal, the congested calendar and lack of vacant midweek slots throughout December means Oliver Glasner’s side look likely to be forced to play four matches across three competitions in just eight days. While the EFL is reported to be in talks with stakeholders and the clubs involved to find a workaround, as things stand, Palace will play Manchester City, Arsenal, KuPS Kuopio and Leeds in a novel Sunday-Tuesday-Thursday-Sunday Premier League, Fizzy Cup and Tin Pot triathlon, during which they’ll barely have time to get their kit washed, let alone catch their breath and recover between games.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I would get up at five, drive the route, finish my shift at four-ish, train, get home at eight. When I did my coaching badges, I worked nights. People see all this now, but not what’s behind it” – Espanyol’s Manolo González gets his very entertaining chat on with Sid Lowe to talk about how he went from being a bus driver to a leading coach in Spain.

The piece on Shamrock Rovers (yesterday’s Football Daily) produced a flood of memories concerning this historic club. I recalled standing on the terraces of Glenmalure Park in the 1960s and 1970s as a regular supporter during many successful seasons. Sadly, the ground was sold in 1987 for property development. The Hoops remained homeless for 22 years before the construction of Tallaght Stadium, the finest in the league, became their home to this day. One shudders at the thought of the nature of the diatribe one minority shareholder would concoct in response to any calamitous collapse. Oh yes, it’s that man again with a fondness for investing in green-hooped league monopolisers, Dermot Desmond, with 25% of the shares” – John Weldon.

The recent Football Daily focus on the revival of long-throw merchants brings to mind Stoke City v Hull City in November 2008, when Tigers stalwart Dean Windass was booked while still on the bench. He chose to warm up energetically on the touchline alongside Rory Delap in a vain effort to distract the master of the long throw’s superhuman hurling of the ball into the Hull box. Despite Windass’s indignant protest (‘I was only warming up, ref’), on the second occasion he was rewarded for his efforts with a yellow card. Windass is also remembered as the only player in the Scottish Premiership to receive three red cards in one game while being on the pitch for just 20 minutes, playing for Aberdeen against Dundee in 1997; a second yellow and automatic red for enthusiastic tackling, the second red for subsequent abuse metered out to the ref; and the third for an assault on the corner flag on his way off. Class act” – David Burnby.

Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s letter o’ the day winner is … David Burnby, who gets a copy of A History of Football in 100 Objects from the Guardian Bookshop, which has loads of other great football reads, too. Get shopping! Terms and conditions for our competitions can be viewed here.

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