Arne Slot makes 'damaging' admission and worrying Liverpool claim after Tottenham

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot admitted that dropping more points, this time against Tottenham at Anfield, was a major blow in the race for the Champions League places

Arne Slot during a Liverpool press conference.(Image: Liverpool FC // YouTube)

Arne Slot has insisted that Liverpool will improve, but admitted his side only has itself to blame for another late goal being conceded, this time at the hands of struggling Tottenham.

Dominik Szoboszlai's free-kick was almost enough for Liverpool to scrape to an unconvincing victory at Anfield but Richarlison popped up with a late equalizer, ensuring that the Reds dropped two more points in the race to qualify for the Champions League.

"Of course it's damaging, but it's how many times this has been damaging for us," Slot said in his post-match press conference. "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 until 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."

Slot admitted that the boos that rang around Anfield at the final whistle were justifiable and was also asked about conceding another late goal — an eighth this season in stoppage time in the Premier League.

Arne Slot's Liverpool were held to a 1-1 draw against Tottenham on Saturday(Image: Getty Images)

"I think approaching a game has not so much to do with the final minutes of the game," Slot 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.

"How to approach the last minutes of the game, I think if you look back on it, which is maybe not the nicest thing to do if you're a fan of us, but I've tried a lot of things.

"I brought in Joe Gomez in the last minute of a game to keep the lead at Fulham. We conceded. I brought in Wata [Endo] during the season to have that midfielder that picks up all the second balls.

"I've done attacker-for-attacker substitution, not to bring a defender in. We've tried many things but the way we are conceding goals is also constantly different.

"So, unfortunately, the things you can try to do as influencers from the side is in the defensive substitution or offensive substitution. I have tried many of them but it hasn't led yet to us not conceding in the last minute.

"But we also have our chances in the last minutes of the game, even today. In extra time, we had an unbelievable chance that simply doesn't go in. But it won't stay like that, I can tell you that."