Liverpool’s FA Cup marketing campaign got here to a surprisingly early finish within the fourth spherical on Sunday once they registered a stunning 1-0 loss to Plymouth Argyle, the last-place workforce within the Championship.
The sport’s lone purpose got here within the 53rd minute when Ryan Hardie transformed a penalty after a handball was referred to as on the Reds’ Harvey Elliott.
The scoreline was only one side of an underwhelming efficiency by Liverpool, who took simply 4 pictures within the first 70 minutes of the sport and have been unable do to a lot with a late flurry of pictures. Their paltry attacking output got here regardless of boasting 75% possession over the course of the sport, throughout which they managed simply three pictures heading in the right direction, with goalkeeper Conor Hazard mustering a serious save on an try from Darwin Nunez shortly earlier than the sport ended.
Liverpool supervisor Arne Slot closely rotated from Thursday’s 4-0 drubbing of Tottenham Hotspur to succeed in subsequent month’s EFL Cup ultimate. Solely goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher began each cup video games as Slot made 10 adjustments, and the youth-focused workforce was unable to string collectively a convincing efficiency regardless of a positive draw.
Plymouth have been the worst workforce in England’s second division up to now this season, mustering simply 5 wins in 30 league video games and boasting a -34 purpose differential as issues stand. A lot of their struggles got here when ex-England worldwide Wayne Rooney was the supervisor, although he was fired in December with the workforce in final place. They haven’t managed to enhance a lot beneath Rooney’s successor, Miron Muslic, although they’re now unbeaten in three with this outcome and have simply two losses of their final 9 video games throughout all competitions.
That string of outcomes features a win within the third spherical of the FA Cup in opposition to one other Premier League aspect in Brentford, who additionally they beat 1-0 final month courtesy of a purpose from Morgan Whittaker within the second half.
