A sombre Arne Slot met with the media following Liverpool's 2-1 loss at Wolves on Tuesday. He said it was the same old story for Liverpool, but his expectations did not change for the season. He also credited the Wolves for a strong defensive posture that was difficult to break down.
Different Game, Same Result
Slot admits that results like this have been happening far too often to Liverpool this season.
“Same old story,” he said. “Recently, we are picking up points because many times we’ve scored from set-pieces, but what did not change in the last five, six or seven games is that we struggle and find it very hard to score from the open-play chances that we do create. Not as many as I would like from all the ball possession we have, but enough and far more than the other team. But, end result, we score one and they score two – and indeed another time in extra-time, so it sums up our season again in this game as well.”
New Expectations
Slot has said before that Champions League qualification is a bare minimum for a club like Liverpool, and despite this result, those expectations remain the same. But he also admits he expected to be fighting for an EPL title.
“My expectations have changed throughout the season because I expected more from us than where we are fighting for now. But it’s another setback and we didn’t help ourselves with this result, not at all. But there are still eight [Premier League] games to play so we are coming closer and closer to the end and then dropping points in a game where it’s absolutely not necessary if you look at the run of play... it wasn’t that we played so great, I’m not saying that, but if we play this game in this fashion 10 times I don’t think we will lose 10 times.
It’s far from sure that we win every time because therefore we were not good enough. If we don’t want to rely on a deflected shot, we need to do better, we have to play better, but we’ve had enough chances to win the game. But credit to Wolves as well, they fought from the first second until the end and got, maybe, a little bit of luck, what they deserved if you look at how much they put in throughout the whole game.”
Fair Play To Wolves
The boss gave credit where credit was due. The Wolves’ low block frustrated Liverpool, and they were able to take advantage of a couple of counter-attacking chances.
“Well done by Wolves,” Slot said. “They made it really hard for us, compact, and in the first half I think – and it is also what I showed them at half-time and told them – that it was possible to play a bit faster from side to side. And if you play a bit faster than the few times that we did in the first half, our wingers at least have some time to take their full-back on. I think that happened in the second half better than in the first half, that’s why we also came closer and closer.
[We] had more crosses or penetrated more in the box than we did in the first half, but then it’s also finishing off those moments and picking the right player in front of goal when you arrive. So ‘slow’ or ‘predictable’ are words that I can understand [Van Dijk] uses, but if you want to go faster, you have to be able to dominate situations on the sides, because then something can happen. We struggled to dominate on the sides today.”
LFC Globe Verdict
I’m a bit disappointed in the presser today. As I said in the “3 Things” article, Slot was to blame for the loss by going back to a slow build-up style of football. He didn’t take responsibility for it, except to say the same things keep happening. Well, if the same things keep happening, it’s your job as manager to try something different, and when you find something that works, don’t revert to what wasn’t working.
Have Your Say
Should the boss have taken more responsibility for the poor result today? It’s time to vent your frustrations below.