'A wise man once said to me' - Arne Slot opens up on Liverpool's 'unacceptable' FA Cup giant-killing at hands of Plymouth

The Reds suffered a shock exit from the FA Cup fourth round this weekend as Ryan Hardie's second-half goal helped the Championship side progress against all odds. Slot was understandably disappointed after the loss and he has urged his players to show a 'different side' of themselves in their upcoming Merseyside derby at Everton.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, the Dutch coach said: "To lose against Plymouth is unacceptable. We are disappointed with that result. Now we have to show a different side of us tomorrow. It was not only the result, but the performance was far below Liverpool standards as well."

The manager rested nine regular starters in the FA Cup, but Slot did not want to cite that as an excuse for the defeat: "A wise man once said to me nothing good comes from losing a football game and I completely agree. We would definitely prefer to have played more games. Now after losing this game, there is one moment where we have a normal week but that is not what we wanted when we went to Plymouth.

"It was difficult because the plan was to play with Joe [Gomez] for 60 minutes, the plan was to start Curtis [Jones] but he didn't feel well enough to play so then all of a sudden, we missed two important players. Darwin [Nunez] became a dad one or two days before the game, that happened in Spain, so he came in one or two days earlier."

He added: "There were some circumstances that weren't perfect. The idea was to play with a stronger team than we did but still, this team should have been able to win that game. The fact we didn't win and that we didn't win against PSV as well tells us that these players need these games to get the best out of them. It's so difficult to get the best out of them if you don't play games. It makes it disappointing we don't have these extra games for them."

After facing Everton on Wednesday at Goodison Park, the Premier League leaders will next face Wolves at Anfield on February 16.