By Saneliso Mlambo
Liverpool suffered a humiliating FA Cup exit as Championship strugglers Plymouth ended their quadruple bid with a stunning 1-0 win in the fourth round on Sunday.
Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah, and Cody Gakpo were among the stars rested as Slot made 10 changes from the team that thrashed Tottenham 4-0 in the League Cup semi-final second leg on Thursday.
In a remarkably successful first season in charge of Liverpool, it was a rare blunder by the former Feyenoord boss.
Liverpool’s fourth defeat in all competitions this season was just the third time the Premier League leaders had failed to score under Slot.
It was only the fourth time that a team top of the Premier League had been eliminated from the FA Cup by a lower division club.
Masterminding a famous victory over Liverpool while fighting to haul Plymouth off the bottom of the Championship was no hardship for Argyle manager Miron Muslic.
Muslic was hired by Plymouth to replace the sacked Wayne Rooney in January .
Plymouth had already beaten Premier League side Brentford in the third round, but their victory against West Brom last weekend was their first in the league since November.
In the circumstances, Plymouth’s superb performance will rank as one of the FA Cup’s greatest giant-killings.
Now Liverpool must shake off the embarrassment of their miserable trip to the west country in time for the last Merseyside derby at Goodison Park against Everton on Wednesday.