The Premier League champions suffered a sixth loss from seven games in all tournaments on Wednesday evening, crashing out of the League Cup to Palace in a devastating 3-0 loss.
Slot made 10 changes to his side following their 3-2 defeat away to Brentford last Saturday, with many of the first team watching on from the sidelines. It was a youthful line-up with a few scattered first team players such as Milos Kerkez and Andrew Robertson thrown in.
Meanwhile, the bench was filled with teenagers hoping to make their debut and gain valuable minutes in a competition many believe Slot does not care about. Speaking on talkSPORT, Saunders says that his selection was not acceptable.
"He is asking for trouble picking a team like that. Straight away, as soon as I saw the team, two thoughts came into my head. You're either trying to get out of the cup or looking forward to the next five games, thinking that's what matters.
"But when you pick a team like that as a manager, it sends a message. The bench tells me everything. You look at what Arteta has done, he had the bench stocked up just in case it's going wrong.”
Slot also insisted he was unwilling to take a “risk” on many first team players who could have picked up knocks. Liverpool are now on a five-game losing streak in domestic competitions, and Saunders believes Slot should have at least had some first team stars on the bench to help his side fight back and end their dire streak.
"Normally, the best players are sitting there and if it starts going wrong, you can put it right. Palace are a good team and he's basically playing the under-23 team against Crystal Palace. Why he didn't have some ammunition on the bench, I don't know.
"The argument from the fans will be, 'Hang on a minute. You spent half a billion quid on your squad and you've got a squad where you can't get everybody on the pitch.' They're queuing up on the bench. Wasn't it a chance to give some of them a game?"