What a difference a week makes. Just seven days ago, Liverpool was dreaming of a sensational treble, with the well on its way to Anfield, the hard part done against Paris Saint-Germain in the , and a final at Wembley just around the corner.

It’s taken . Sure, the league title still looks as though it’s in the bag, but the last week has gone about as badly as it could have done for the Reds.

, but it could have happened to anyone against one of Europe’s best sides. Much, much more worrying than that , when - let’s face it - a 2-1 defeat to Newcastle actually flattered Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final.

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The problem is, that display has felt like it’s been coming for a while now, and it can trace its roots all the way back to over a month ago, when the quadruple turned into the treble.

, but a line should have been drawn under it quickly. Instead, you can trace much of what was bad about Liverpool at Wembley back to that fateful day in Devon.

was roundly , with some even going as far as to label it his biggest mistake in his short reign at Liverpool so far. For what it’s worth, I actually disagree with that viewpoint, and if anything, Sunday showed exactly why he was right to rest some of his biggest names.

What is his biggest mistake though is that he hasn’t done that often enough. Players like , and have been starved of minutes this season, and even has begun to fall out of favor in recent weeks.

For all the talk of an over-reliance on , Slot leans too heavily on the same 11 or 12 players. And when he did give his fringe players a chance, and they didn’t deliver, he seems to have doubled down on that stance.

The likes of and , such vital members of the team earlier in the season, now look like they’re running on fumes as a result. It can’t be any surprise that , the one midfielder who has been rotated more regularly, has been the standout performer in the engine room recently.

That game at Plymouth seemed as though it was the end of the line for some players, especially Elliott and Chiesa. Ironically, they were perhaps the only players to escape Sunday’s final with any credit.

Yet, while those two have been made to sit idly by, and have somehow managed to retain their places in the starting lineup. They were just as bad as anyone else against Plymouth, yet have managed to retain their spots in the starting lineup for most of the games since, while contributing just one goal between them.

is right that Liverpool , but at the same time, Slot needs to show more faith in the other options he has currently at the club. At the very least, Chiesa must get more opportunities now after his cameo at Wembley.

Barring a catastrophic last couple of months, the Premier League title should be what ultimately defines Slot’s first season in charge. In the long run though, that game at Plymouth might actually prove to have more of an impact, providing the Liverpool boss learns properly from it.