In the wake of yesterday’s defeat in the League Cup final, I made a TikTok video in which I railed against the ownership of the winners by the nation state of Saudi Arabia. I have received countless replies to the video from supporters of that club, most of which call me ‘salty’ and many declare me to be a ‘sore loser’, along with more than a few referring to Liverpool fans as ‘murderers’. There are also a large number of replies that compare apples to oranges, saying that the fact that the Reds are owned by Americans means we’re just as bad. As I’ve said countless times before, if we were owned by the nation of the USA I would be hugely against it and protest their ownership. I have also called out the club for agreeing a sponsorship deal with Visit Maldives, given that country’s appalling stance on LGBTQ+ rights. This isn’t about me willingly ignoring one thing whilst calling out another.
Kop Outs, LFC’s’s LGBT+ fan group, express their profound anger & disappointment at the club’s decision to enter into a sponsorship deal with Visit Maldives. Given Maldives’ appalling human rights record, this partnership directly contradicts the club’s stated commitment to equality & inclusion.
— Kop Outs (@kop-outs.bsky.social) 13 March 2025 at 10:16
I thought it was worth taking the beginning of this piece to have a quick look at why Saudi Arabia owning a football club in order to sportswash its reputation is such a massive issue. Just this weekend a story emerged in the New York Times about African women dying as well as facing rape and assault in Saudi Arabia as part of a system from which the Saudi Royal Family benefits financially. Human Rights Watch released a report that states, “The PIF has facilitated and benefited from human rights abuses and the Saudi government regularly uses it to whitewash its own abuses”. The Human Dignity Trust points out that LGBTQ+ people are criminalised in the country, with the maximum penalty being death. None of the reports into the League Cup win that I’ve seen, heard or read mention Saudi Arabia or the countries appalling human rights record, which is precisely why them winning is such a massive problem for the sport.
The Manager Got it Wrong
I think Arne Slot is a genius. I don’t think you get to arrive at a new club in a country that you have never worked in before, win the Premier League at the first time of asking, which is what he is going to do, and be anything other than that. There is no question, though, that the Dutchman got it wrong in his approach to the final yesterday. Slot picked the wrong starting XI and then made an error in his substitutions, which has been something that we’ve seen from him more than once of late. I’m not entirely sure what it is that the manager has seen in the performances of Diogo Jota since he returned from his latest injury that have led him to repeatedly put the Portuguese forward in his starting lineup, nor do I have any real sense of what he thinks Cody Gakpo has been offering to keep selecting him as one of his first subs. His refusal to use Federico Chiesa more than sparingly has been wild, to say the least.
Slot has done brilliantly but it’s not a surprise that he’s struggled with squad rotation given he’s never had to deliver at this level before. Lessons learned. Win the league and go again next season with an improved squad and understanding of how to manage the squad to stay fitter for longer.
— TVR LFC (@tvrlfc.bsky.social) 16 March 2025 at 21:07
The Italian showed when he came on exactly what he can offer that we haven’t been getting from either of the other players I’ve just mentioned, whilst Harvey Elliott has been criminally underused during a season that was always going to be extremely taxing on the players. Whilst I completely understand that Darwin Núñez has almost certainly burnt his head out and has been equally frustrating to watch as a supporter, he would’ve been the better choice to start this game as well as at least one of the ones against Paris Saint-Germain. There has been precedent for the manner in which Slot seems to have underestimated the physical difficulty of playing in numerous competitions in England, with the likes of Rafa Benítez and Jürgen Klopp doing the same in their first seasons. I do wonder whether this is a lesson that Slot will have learnt from and will look to adapt moving forward.
It Isn’t Rocket Science Why we Lost
In the wake of the full-time whistle, social media was awash with people releasing their hot takes about why we had lost. I saw some people acting as though we’d be lucky to ever win another football match, such was their conviction that the Reds had fallen off a cliff. In reality, I don’t think the reasoning behind our defeat was anywhere near so complex. Arne Slot decided to bring forward the Aston Villa match, in spite of the fact that it would mean playing five intense games in 15 days. In one sense, it was a decision that paid off when you consider that we all but broke the back of Arsenal’s resistance and have put ourselves in charge of the destiny of the Premier League. In another, though, it was asking the players to go through the mill physically just before they would have to take on one of the best teams in the Premier League as well as take part in a cup final. Simply put, the players were shattered.
Not good enough today by a very long way. The better team won.
We looked exhausted from the kick off but 5 games in 15 days then a massive pair of games against PSG will do that to you.
Go again, win the league— Ian Salmon (@ianrsalmon.bsky.social) 16 March 2025 at 18:33
The fact that Slot doesn’t seem to trust his squad players enough to mean that he’s been willing to give them starts or even more minutes means that the lads who were asked to go again and again had nothing left in the tank by the time the final came around. Add that to the wrong tactics being employed from the outset and it isn’t hard to see how a team that seemingly wanted it more would end up emerging with the trophy. We will still win the league and we will deserve to do so. There is no need for anyone to throw the baby out with the bathwater or to overreact about what we’re seeing. This isn’t a complete disaster but rather is a bump in the road during a season that will still give us more than we could possibly have wished for before a ball was kicked. Slot got it wrong, but hopefully it is something he won’t do again in the future. It’s worth noting that Paisley lost his first League Cup final too…
