2 weeks ago
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Liverpool head coach Arne Slot doesn't believe that his side is lacking confidence at the moment despite the Reds being on a losing streak of four games.
But Roy Keane, speaking after Liverpool lost 2-1 at home to Manchester United in the Premier League, felt that some players looked short of confidence. Mohamed Salah is desperately out of form, for instance, while Alexander Isak is misfiring and Florian Wirtz is still adjusting to life in English soccer.
"Liverpool looked edgy and they are forcing things," Keane said on Sky Sports. "There are nerves in Liverpool and that's on the back of three defeats.
"They are only human and when you lose three games, doubts kick in and you think 'Are we going to lose again?'. You still thought Liverpool would get the job done. The sloppiness in decision-making is costing Liverpool."
Slot, though, has a different view. The Liverpool boss pinpointed two things that need solving: taking the chances that they create, and defending from set-pieces.
"I think as a manager, you constantly face challenges," Slot said in his post-match press conference. "When I just started, you face the challenge of being new manager and then you need to win games.
"Then when you do well you go to a bigger club and people are like, 'Oh, let's see how he does over there.' Then you go to be the successor of Jurgen Klopp and people say this is the biggest challenge you ever faced.
"Now we have lost four times in a row and that's also a challenge. So, the life of a football manager is an ongoing challenge. If you win games you want to keep winning; if you lose games you want to start winning again.
"Do we lose confidence? I cannot see it yet, because every single game we've lost, we were able to create in the second half an unbelievable amount of chances.
"If you look back at all the three games we've lost in the Premier League, if you just put all the highlights [next to] each other, you would say it's hardly possible that they lose this game.
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"So if we can keep producing what we are doing and do a few things a little bit better, then there is every reason to expect that we start to win football games again.
"But I cannot promise you that on Wednesday evening we are again able to create eight, nine or 10 open chances. I hope so, and with the players we have then it will lead in the end to us scoring more goals."
Liverpool.com says: Confidence has to be a factor at the moment, particularly in attack. If Isak and Salah start scoring the chances they are getting, then everything else will fall into place.
Defensively, Liverpool obviously has to improve. However, it is creating more than enough chances to win most games, without managing to convert them. Sort that, and things will swiftly improve.
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