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The footballing world revelling in their misery, lauding the Pilgrims’ win as one of the greatest ever modern cup upsets will have done little to appease deflated moods.

But now over 24 hours on from the final whistle at Home Park and the dust has settled.

But the biggest losers at Home Park were the fringe players themselves.



“For them to be ready in the upcoming months, they need game time, and you saw today that some of these players really need games like this to be ready for the last three months of the season.”

The irony for Liverpool is that that very lack of rhythm is ultimately what cost them dear at Home Park in a rare below-par performance.

And by being knocked out of the FA Cup, Slot may now be denied the opportunity to hand his fringe players any further significant game-time.

Including the injured Trent Alexander-Arnold, the Reds left 11 senior players at home when they travelled to Plymouth.

Slot made a similar decision for last month’s Champions League dead-rubber against PSV Eindhoven.

But with FA Cup elimination ensuring they will navigate two free weekends in March, Liverpool’s now well-rested senior stars can expect similar breaks between matches next month ahead of the season’s run-in.

Consequently, Slot will face no real need for such wholesale rotation in the weeks and months ahead.

Eight months into his Anfield reign and he now has a first-choice line-up, with really only two or three positions in it that are not as secure as others.

Divock Origi is a Liverpool cult hero for a reason despite his eternal bit-part role.

Such players will all still have a part to play in the final months of the season, of course.