Arne Slot pinpoints what Liverpool 'should focus on' as he slams Man Utd tactics

4 hours ago 32

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot was insistent that his side only had itself to blame for losing 2-1 at home to Manchester United in the Premier League.

Harry Maguire scored from a header to give Ruben Amorim a huge boost. Bryan Mbeumo and Cody Gakpo were also on the scoresheet at Anfield in a game that saw Liverpool struggle at both ends.

"It makes it even harder if you are 1-0 down after one or two minutes," Slot said live on Sky Sports. "If you told me that we would play against a low block and a team that plays so many long balls, that we would be able to create so many chances, I would think that we wouldn't lose the game, but we did, because we missed a lot [of shots].

"The few chances we conceded led to two goals and again, a set-piece is partly the reason why we lost the game.

"If you lose a game of football, especially after you have lost four, maybe I should not talk about that. No excuses. We have had more than enough chances to score a goal.

"I don't want to talk about (the referee). We had so many chances ourselves that we should have taken and we need to score more. If you are 1-1 and the game is completely there for you and you have to defend one set-piece, defend it better than we did.

Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk.

Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk.

"This is what we should focus on. If there is emotion in the game about decisions, that is something quite normal. Every manager has this but I should not talk about this."

Slot and his players will hope to bounce back midweek with a tricky-looking trip to Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League.

"In the second half, we started out quite well," Slot said. "We had so many players on the bench that we wanted to use them and then you take the risk [with going so attacking].

"If you are 1-0 down, you have to take more risks than when you are 1-0 up. If I take that into account and then see how we had to fight back, I cannot be too negative.

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"But defending on a set-piece when you are at 1-1. That happened to us at Palace and it happened today. That we have to do much better.

"It is a difficult moment because you know how it works in football. If you lose a game, or two or three or four... the main thing is the players keep believing.

"If you play a game like this, the players will be in the dressing room saying 'What an amount of chances we had'. But you can play the next game where you maybe don't create as much.

"What I see is they are all really involved. I see everything that is needed to win a game but maybe it is a smart thing we start doing this quite soon."

Liverpool.com says: Slot has a few things to sort out at the moment. Defensively, there is far too much space for opponents to exploit, while the attack is misfiring. In time, it will work itself out, but is has to be soon for Arsenal still to be within reach.

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