Arne Slot needs his Liverpool selection gamble to pay off in the games ahead

As the rain ripped down on Anfield and the seats emptied long before full time, the overriding sound inside was the soft mocking from the away end. “Can we play you every week?” the Crystal Palace supporters sang as they celebrated a third victory of the season over Liverpool.

It was a stark contrast to this time last year when the Premier League champions were grinding through the gears in pursuit of the title and Arne Slot was winning plaudits for the way he had his team competing on all fronts.

Here, though, he was the subject of regular berating from the visiting supporters who roared the words  “You’re getting sacked in the morning” before following up with another playful chant of “Arne, give us a wave.” Six defeats in seven games have turned Liverpool into a laughing stock.

Yet standing on the sidelines, soaked and with a blank expression, Slot waited patiently for the final whistle before applauding the small percentage of home supporters who had stuck around until the end. He knows they’re still with him, but their patience is starting to run thin.

This was another painful night for Liverpool, and it was certainly not how October was supposed to end. This month has been packed with both hurt and humiliation, but there’s still time to turn the form around.

While exiting the Carabao Cup is disappointing, it’s not season-defining. Although the statistics make miserable reading — the last time Liverpool lost their last five games against English opponents was back in 1953 — supporters know a quick fix in the weeks ahead can spark a revival going into the festive period.

This stuttering period is as bad as it has been for some time, and Saturday’s game with Aston Villa in the Premier League is huge. Yet most of those inside Anfield have reluctantly accepted the position they find themselves in and are committed to helping turn things around.

Opinions were split on Slot’s team selection, but the majority felt it was a sensible decision to rest key players with bigger games on the horizon.

While picking a stronger team would have boosted the chances of a win, and in turn possibly halted the domestic slide, the risk of losing more players when Alisson, Jeremie Frimpong, Curtis Jones, and Alexander Isak are all expected to miss the weekend was far greater. The only good news on that front is that Ryan Gravenberch is edging closer to fitness and could return to face Villa at the weekend.

Slot said he made 10 changes to the starting XI because he only had 15 senior players available, and already he could see the strain on the squad. Even after the 3-0 defeat, he said “it felt right” and claimed he had no regrets.

By contrast, when Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner was asked about his starting line-up, he said the decision to stick with a strong team was because he wanted to encourage rhythm and that “positive emotions help you recover quicker”.

Slot also pointed out that he rested key players in the early rounds of the Carabao Cup last season, yet the difference was that he did not rely on so many youngsters. Big hitters such as Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Luis Diaz were also named on the bench last year, and some of them were called upon. This year, there was no such supply in reserve. Liverpool’s first two changes against Crystal Palace were to bring teenage centre-halves Amara Nallo and Wellity Lucky on, which pointed to how much Slot thought about this game.

All nine substitutes were academy players, and between them they had made just 19 first-team appearances. Nallo, 18, who was sent off shortly after coming on, has also been dismissed in his last two games, which is some introduction for a youngster trying to make an impression.

In truth, it was no great surprise that the senior players struggled to make an impact, either. Joe Gomez and Wataru Endo made mistakes because they were rusty and hadn’t played regularly. Federico Chiesa put himself about but has lost that early-season momentum, while Milos Kerkez is still searching for a performance that justifies why Liverpool were so keen to spend £40million on him this summer. Rio Ngumoha, 17, Kieran Morrison, 18, and Trey Nyoni, 18, meanwhile, are still developing and learning on the job. Perhaps they all wouldn’t have started if injuries were not cutting so deep.

Yet this still felt like an opportunity for Liverpool to get back on track and end a miserable run of results. Instead, Slot chose to focus on the weekend and what lies ahead. He knows the pressure is building, but is encouraged by the response of the supporters.

“If you are on a run of results like this and you manage Liverpool, you know the pressure is there,” he said. “Maybe the most positive thing about tonight is that 2-0 down and not pushing for a goal, the fans were behind the team and supporting us, and that gives me the feeling that on Saturday our fans will be incredibly supportive.”

There’s certainly a willingness to stick by the manager and the team during such adversity, but the goodwill won’t last forever. Liverpool are playing through a crisis, taking far too many beatings and now being mocked in their own backyard. It has to change.