Slot machine: Carabao Cup gamble puts pressure on Liverpool's next match

LIVERPOOL, England -- As the heavens opened over Anfield, the TV cameras panned to the Liverpool dugout.

Behind head coach Arne Slot and his bench of substitutes, Mohamed Salah, Alexander Isak, and Florian Wirtz were sat side-by-side in the stands, bundled up against the cold. The trio have more than 500 career goals between them, but on Wednesday night, they were powerless to do anything but watch as Liverpool were beaten 3-0 by Crystal Palace in the Carabao Cup.

Having made 10 changes from Saturday's 3-2 defeat at Brentford, Slot will have known such an outcome was highly likely. Liverpool's mounting injury list and punishing upcoming schedule mean the Dutchman was always going to be governed by a desire to protect his senior stars when deciding on his squad for this fourth-round tie.

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Still, as Slot himself noted on several occasions last season, nothing good comes from losing a game. The form book shows that Liverpool have now lost six of their last seven games in all competitions, with a crisis threatening to engulf a campaign many predicted would end with another Premier League title triumph.

At present, the prospect of Slot's side winning any silverware this term looks bleak. Certainly, for the first time in three years, they will not be at Wembley Stadium when the winner of this competition is decided, with Ismalia Sarr's first-half double and a late strike from Yeremy Pino consigning the Reds to yet another hugely disappointing night.

Milos Kerkez was the only player who featured at Brentford to retain his place in the starting XI, with fellow left back Andy Robertson partnering Joe Gomez at center back. Calvin Ramsay -- making his first senior appearance for Liverpool in three years -- started at right back, while Slot also handed debuts to both goalkeeper Freddie Woodman and 18-year-old winger Kieran Morrison.

Despite the drastic change in personnel, Liverpool actually started the match well, with the prodigious Rio Ngumoha delighting the home crowd with a typically lively display on the left flank. But, from the moment Sarr slotted home in the 41st minute following Gomez's heavy touch inside the penalty area, it was clear there was only going to be one winner.

That sense of inevitability was compounded when the Senegal international -- who has now scored seven goals in nine career appearances against the Reds -- doubled his tally for the evening on the stroke of halftime, with Pino's curling effort providing the icing on the cake for Palace, who are now unbeaten in four games against Liverpool for the first time in their history.

While Slot has, for much of his tenure, been able to rely on his bench to change the game, the lack of senior reinforcements against Oliver Glasner's side made it almost impossible to pull off any kind of rescue act. Liverpool's substitutes had just nine first-team appearances between them, and that air of inexperience was evidenced when defender Amara Nallo was handed a straight red card for denying a goal-scoring opportunity just 12 minutes after being introduced to the action in the second half.

The 18-year-old may one day find himself the answer to a rather unedifying quiz question, having also been sent off in his only other Liverpool appearance: the 3-2 defeat to PSV Eindhoven in February.

Still, the responsibility for this latest defeat does not lie with him but his head coach, who is now undoubtedly in the midst of the toughest spell of his managerial career. For the second game in a row, the Dutchman was the subject of chants of: "You're getting sacked in the morning" by the opposition supporters as his team stumbled towards another morale-sapping defeat.

"I don't think it's possible if you lose five out of six -- now after six out of seven -- [that you have] even more pressure," Slot said when quizzed on the potential repercussions of his team's cup exit.