It would be wrong to suggest a club with Liverpool’s proud history will be completely unmoved by a third-round elimination from a competition they have won seven times. They do, however, clearly have other priorities and it was certainly difficult to remember the last time a team from Anfield has seemed as indifferent, blasé even, about the FA Cup as Jürgen Klopp’s team did during this defeat.

The best time to judge whether Klopp was right to take such a risk will come at the end of the season, when we know whether the current Premier League leaders have held their position at the top of the table. For now, however, all that really can be said is they were obliging opponents for a Wolves side that fully took advantage of Klopp’s team selection and won a rather dishevelled tie with a firecracker of a shot from Rúben Neves.

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In truth Wolves made it into the fourth round despite their own performance that seldom rated above six out of ten. Equally, it was never likely they would have to reach their peak levels on a night when Liverpool’s approach could be accurately gauged by the fact Klopp started with two teenage debutants, Curtis Jones and Rafael Camacho, and a 16-year-old, Ki-Jana Hoever, was brought on after six minutes because of a hamstring injury to Dejan Lovren. Hoever, recruited from the Ajax academy, became only the third man – or, rather, boy – of that age to appear for Liverpool in the club’s entire history and their youngest ever player in the FA Cup.

Klopp would still be entitled to point out his starting XI included nine full internationals and, in a prickly press conference afterwards, he insisted he had taken the game seriously. “We’re not here to make a record for the world’s youngest team,” he said. “The boys train with us and the reason they train with us is because they are good enough. We train ten v ten and, believe me, they do much better than they did tonight.”

He went on to say the principal reason why Liverpool struggled to make better use of the ball was the swirling wind and mentioned it again when summarising the winning goal. Was he disappointed with the senior players? “They can do much better,” he concluded.

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All the same there could be little doubt about his priorities, with Alisson, Virgil van Dijk and Andy Robertson among those given the night off. Liverpool managed only nine touches inside the opposition penalty area. Divock Origi’s goal to make it 1-1, after Raul Jiménez had opened the scoring for Wolves, was one of only two shots on target from the away side and, to put it another way, Lovren’s early departure meant Klopp experimenting with a back four comprising one player who is not old enough to start driving lessons, an 18-year-old at right-back, a reserve left-back in the shape of Alberto Moreno and Fabinho, who would usually be found in midfield, operating as a centre-half. For Wolves it was a golden opportunity to reach the fourth round and, if anything, they could conceivably have made it an easier night.

As it was, it took a while before Nuno Espírito Santo’s players took heed of the “Cup Inspiration” headline on the back of the Wolverhampton Express & Star, urging them to win for the recently deceased Bill Slater, who captained the side to their last FA Cup triumph in 1960.

The tempo was far too slow early on, from both sides, and it was surprising perhaps that it was not until Jiménez’s 38th-minute goal that the home side exerted any real control. James Milner lost possession just inside the opposition half. Diogo Jota slipped the ball to Jiménez and he simply kept running, avoiding Fabinho, cutting in diagonally from the right and beating Simon Mignolet with a diagonal finish just inside the post.

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Liverpool had to improve in the second half and, six minutes after the restart, they were level. Milner had the first attempt and, when the ball rebounded to Origi, he adjusted his feet before sending a left-footed shot past John Ruddy in the home goal.

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It was a splendid strike but the game’s outstanding moment came four minutes later when Neves collected the ball almost 30 yards out. As soon as his first touch created the shooting angle, there was no doubt he was going to let fly. His shot was powerfully struck but it was the precision, just inside the near post, and the way the ball moved in midair, with so much late dip, that deceived Mignolet. “Such a beautiful goal,” Santo said afterwards. “It’s something he does and we encourage him to do.”

Klopp responded by bringing on Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino in the 70th minute and, finally, Liverpool started to play with a bit more urgency. The closest they came to another equaliser was Xherdan Shaqiri curling a free-kick against the woodwork, via Ruddy’s fingertips, and Hoever in particular showed glimpses of his talent for the future. Yet Klopp must have been disappointed that his understudies, Daniel Sturridge in particular, could not make a more favourable impact and the reward for Wolves is a fourth-round tie at either Shrewsbury Town or Stoke City.