Liverpool pragmatism proves gamble too far as Plymouth spring huge FA Cup shock

Proof, if it were needed, that winning quadruples is really hard.

There are different types of gambles you will always be obliged to take along the way. Sometimes it’s gambling on picking a stronger team than you’d ideally like to do. Sometimes, it’s picking a weaker one.

There can be little criticism of the way Arne Slot chose to deploy his resources across the cup games this week ahead of a run of five potentially season-defining Premier League games in 15 days before February is done.

With that run of five games including Everton, Aston Villa and Manchester City away, it’s fair to say it’s going to involve some hard work along the way.

But given his time again, Slot might well choose to have gone slightly weaker on Thursday night and slightly stronger this afternoon. But he could also be excused for being surprised at how bad Spurs were then and how good Plymouth were now.

It was a scratch Liverpool side, and one that lost a good chunk of the experience it did possess when Joe Gomez was forced off. It was no surprise to see Liverpool looking less fluid and more disjointed than we’ve become accustomed to seeing, but still the extent of the drop-off will have alarmed Slot.

And as is so often the case, once the underdogs had been given heart and encouragement, the big boys found it hard to turn the tide.

Only in the closing minutes and a nine-minute period of injury time that seemed to last for several weeks did Liverpool look anything like the team we expect and have grown used to seeing week in, week out.

The striking thing about the two fine saves Conor Hazard made in stoppage time from Diogo Jota and Darwin Nunez was not so much the saves themselves but how little you’d seen or heard of him until the clock had ticked beyond 90 minutes.

His late contributions were vital, but the real heroes were in green in front of him, with the centre-backs immense. Maksym Talovierov and Nikola Katic in particular were superb, with Katic securing a lifetime cult hero status by following his on-field performance with a magnificently sweary post-match interview.

For Liverpool, this will sting. Wholesale changes or no, they should have had enough talent and nous to deal with the Championship’s bottom club.

The quadruple is never really on in February, but it was impossible not to be tantalised by the possibility given Liverpool’s obvious quality and the way stars seemed to be aligning for them.

The best season in history is now therefore beyond them, but this still remains a season that can go down in history for Liverpool. And the cold, hard truth is that if the decision to rest all the season’s key men here results in even a handful of extra league points over the arduous couple of weeks ahead then it will still have been worth it.

For Plymouth, this is already a famous cup run. They’ve reached the fifth round for only the fifth time in their history and have knocked out two Premier League sides to get there. The win at Brentford was one thing, but even a much-changed Liverpool is a different level. It is a day that goes down in Argyle history whatever else the season may eventually bring.

They may not quite be the non-league part-timers Sam Matterface appeared to think Liverpool were losing to at times on ITV. None of these lads are going back to their jobs at the toothpaste factory on Monday morning. They’re bottom of the Championship, not the Southern League. They’re heading for League One, not step 10 of the pyramid.

But even that relegation to League One no longer looks the certainty it did under Wayne Rooney. Last week’s win over West Brom – also secured in dramatic fashion with help from a Ryan Hardie penalty – brought them back into striking distance of those above them.

And this was a day to make anyone believe that anything is possible.

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