Arne Slot was visibly disappointed in his press conference today after a tough 1-1 draw versus Spurs. He lamented Liverpool's Inability to score a second goal, adding that the result was damaging to their Champions League hopes, but not fatal. He also offered some thoughts on how to improve in late-game situations going forward.
Missed Opportunities
If Liverpool had scored a second goal at any point during the match, they would have had a much clearer path to three points.
“In the large parts of the game that we were the better team, I think that is a moment where you have to score the second,” I think we had moments to do so quite a lot and in the part of the game where it was more equal – the last 15 to 20 minutes – on both sides, it was waiting for one of the two teams to score. They created the chances all in a similar way, the four or five moments they had: long ball, picking up the second ball and then try to be a threat in moments like that. We also picked up a lot of those second balls where we were able to counter-attack them, but from all these counter-attacks, all these four versus three, three versus two, all these moments that I felt with the quality players we have that we should be able to either get a bigger chance or when we have it, to score it. We didn't and then in the last minute we conceded the equaliser, and then there's not a lot of time left to make up for it.”
Damaging But Not Done
Liverpool’s Champions League hopes were damaged with the loss but they are certainly not over.
“Of course it's damaging, but it's how many times this has been damaging for us,” Slot said.” We don't help ourselves at all. It's so many times this season that we've created much more xG or chances than the amount of goals we score. Usually in the Premier League you see a lot of teams outperforming their xG, but that definitely is [not] what we are doing throughout the whole season. Then a game still stays tight till the end and we struggle to keep clean sheets. We haven't had as many clean sheets as you would want if you want to go higher up in the table. That's a bad combination for picking up the amount of points we want to pick up."
What has To Change?
It seems as if Liverpool is conceding late goals in every match? How do they fix it? Slot offers answers.
“I think approaching a game has not so much to do with the final minutes of the game,” he said. “I think what you are trying as a manager or as a team is to outperform the other team in terms of chance creation. You always try to create more chances than the other team, because usually that leads to winning more than you lose. So that means attacking-wise, generate as much chances as you can. And defensively, don't give away as much. And I think throughout almost the whole season we've been on the positive side of that in terms of chance creation because we've not been a lot of times on the positive side of scoring goals or conceding goals.”
LFC Globe Verdict
The biggest thing for me that stood out in the press conference was that Slot fully plans to be back at Liverpool next year. he was asked directly on how to fix the late goal situations for the rest of this season and next season and he did not give an answer like some one who was expecting to be sacked.
This flies directly in the face of Several reports that say a deal for Xabi Alonso is already in place. I think Slot wants to be at Liverpool as long as the team will have him and If he qualifies for the Champions League next year, he should remain on Merseyside in my opinion.
Have Your Say
Is this your final straw for Slot, or will you be patient and see how the rest of the season plays out? Let us know below.