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Arne Slot jumped to Mohamed Salah's defence following Chelsea's Marc Cucurella's admission that the Blues deliberately targeted the Liverpool winger in the build-up to their decisive goal earlier this month.
Full-back Cucurella pushed forward into space down Liverpool's right flank and delivered a cross for Willian Estevao to net a stoppage-time winner at Stamford Bridge, with the west London side's jubilant celebrations resulting in boss Enzo Maresca receiving his marching orders.
Cucurella subsequently revealed that Maresca had instructed his squad to capitalize on the space vacated by Salah during the latter stages of the encounter, suggesting that the Egyptian's positioning alongside more forward-thinking midfielders like Florian Wirtz and Dominik Szoboszlai created defensive vulnerabilities for the Reds.
"We know that Salah is always ready for the counter-attack," Cucurella told Sky Sports after the match. "So we practiced that, and the manager said that the space might be there (on Liverpool's right side).
"We saw that it was the last minute but we kept attacking. I tried to give my last effort and Enzo (Fernandez) gave me the ball, and I crossed for Estevao."
Prior to his team's encounter with Manchester United on Sunday, Slot came to the defence of Wirtz, Szoboszlai and especially Salah, arguing that the result might have been entirely different had the Egyptian converted the opportunities he fashioned by advancing forward.
"I think they're (Wirtz and Szoboszlai) both attacking midfielders and both are expected to defend, like all our 11 players are expected to defend," Slot stated.
"In this particular case I heard the comments of Cucurella, and also saw how they scored the [goal to make it] 2-1, but I could have also showed you five or six moments where Mo could have made the difference for us.
"And if that would have happened then we would have had a conversation like last season, where he so many times made the difference for us.
"But if that doesn't happen then you get comments like this. It's always the balance between winger and full-backs.
"I want our full-backs to attack as well, so we have to find the right balance in that, but we are conceding too many crosses compared to last season, and this is something I'm aware of and we have to do better."
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