Liverpool have lurched from consistently winning to repeatedly losing and the Premier League champions find themselves seven points behind league leaders Arsenal.
Manager Arne Slot won the title in his first season in charge of Liverpool and made a flying start to their Premier League defence in 2025-26.
But after starting the season with seven wins on the bounce in all competitions excluding the Community Shield, the Reds lost the next four. They’ve been defeated in five of their last six matches domestically and in the Champions League.
Liverpool boss Arne Slot is able to mix up his preparations ahead of the Reds’ Carabao Cup tie with Crystal Palace
Liverpool stopped the rot in their most recent Champions League match, hammering Eintracht Frankfurt in Germany, but lost 3-2 at Brentford in the Premier League on Saturday.
Carabao Cup rules afford Slot the opportunity to divert from his usual pre-match obligations.
Managers in the Premier League and EFL are required to hold a press conference before every fixture, usually facing questions about player availability and any pertinent news stories relating to the match.
That’s not the case in the Carabao Cup and Liverpool have chosen not to put Slot up in front of reporters before the visit of the Eagles on Wednesday.
“Clubs are not obliged to hold a pre-match press conference, with it simply [being] required that at least one player and the head coach be made available for interviews if the fixture is selected for broadcast,” reports This Is Anfield.
“Wednesday’s fourth round clash will be shown live on Sky Sports and therefore Slot can be expected to hold a lengthy Q&A with one of their reporters.”
Pepijn Lijnders tended to take Carabao Cup press conferences as the assistant manager to Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool’s decision not to hold an optional presser could be seen in a negative light, given the Reds’ form in other competitions.
However, there was also no press conference before Liverpool’s third round win against Southampton, before which they’d put together a run of six consecutive victories in the Premier League and Champions League.
Slot, who is ranked at no.2 in FourFourTwo’s list of the best managers in the world right now, is not minded to shirk the media or swerve tricky questions any more than Sky Sports’ reporter on the night will avoid asking him about Liverpool’s current fortunes.
2024-25 finalists and 10-time winners Liverpool take on Crystal Palace in League Cup action on Wednesday.
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