After four successive Premier League defeats, the idea that passage to the fifth round of the Carabao Cup will have given Arne Slot extra margin for error on Saturday night against Aston Villa is fanciful.

The Liverpool boss is firmly in the grip of his worst sequence since he pitched up on Merseyside in the summer of 2024 and the questions and the critiques are piling up by the game right now.

The injury list is growing, with Slot potentially without Curtis Jones, Alexander Isak and Ryan Gravenberch for the game against Unai Emery's men, while the fixture will also come too soon for Alisson Becker and Jeremie Frimpong, who are both recovering from hamstring issues.

OPINION

The big-money buys of the summer in £125m Isak and £116m Florian Wirtz are yet...