Arne Slot defended his team selection after his much-changed Liverpool side crashed out of the FA Cup to Championship bottom-club Plymouth.

The Premier League leaders had been big pre-match favourites to march into round five of the competition, with talk of a possible quadruple even beginning to build following their qualification for the Carabao Cup final.

But Slot made 10 changes from the side which beat Tottenham in the semi-final second-leg of that competition on Thursday for the trip to Home Park, leaving key men Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk out of his squad. Liverpool go to Everton on Wednesday, where they can stretch their advantage at the top of the Premier League to nine points over Arsenal.

There were senior figures in the side, including Diogo Jota, Federico Chiesa and Luis Diaz, but Liverpool struggled to create chances, with just three shots on target and an Expected Goals total of 0.44 from open play, their lowest tally since Slot took charge.

Ryan Hardie scored a penalty for Plymouth and Liverpool couldn't find a way back into the tie.

"We have to play many games," said Slot. "The last few weeks, we've played every week two times. The upcoming weeks we have to play twice.

"It's not only good for them [his starters] to once in a while have a week where they only play one game but also for the ones here today, they need the intensity of a game. They had that against PSV [in the Champions League]. Unfortunately they lost that one. And they had that today and unfortunately we lost this one as well.

"Today also showed why we play with the ones we played today. These players need game rhythm as well.

"You saw today some of these players really need games like this to be ready for the last three months of the season."

Other changes included 17-year-old Trey Nyoni for Ryan Gravenberch, James McConnell in place of Dominik Szoboszlai and debutant Issac Mabaya coming on for the injured Joe Gomez.