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Arne Slot has revealed he was pleased with the way Liverpool defended in Monday’s friendlies against Athletic Bilbao, but admitted he is concerned about one area ahead of this weekend’s game against Crystal Palace.
The Reds faced Bilbao in two back-to-back matches at Anfield, winning both. An under-strength XI won 4-1 in the opening fixture before a stronger side emerged with a 3-2 victory in the second match.
Defensive lapses have been a concern this summer for Liverpool in its preseason matches, something Slot has even referenced. But he felt there was a noticeable improvement across 180 minutes on Monday, despite Ibrahima Konate being the only recognized center-back in either line-up.
However, one aspect that did worry Slot was Liverpool’s defending from set-pieces, with Bilbao’s Oihan Sancet scoring from a free-kick routine in the first period, before a corner kick in the second resulted in Cody Gakpo inadvertently turning the ball into his own net.
Ahead of the Community Shield encounter against a physically dominant Palace, Slot says that is a concern.
“Today we hardly conceded anything at all, so that pleased me as well,” Slot told LFCTV, as he reflected on the double header at Anfield.
“But then to concede, especially in the second game, two set-piece goals, that's not what you want – especially if you play Crystal Palace [on Sunday] who are a team that are very strong on set-pieces.
“That's another thing to work on. We've worked on that already but to work on that even more in the upcoming week.
Despite that, Slot was pleased with the performances overall and felt the teams’ attacking contributions were excellent.
“Players are fit, worked really hard, played some good football, defended really strong and good – apart from the two set-pieces,” he said.
“I think in both games we created a lot of chances, scored seven goals – four in the first, three in the second – so that's very pleasing to see because we definitely didn't score every chance we had.
“Especially in the second game in the first half, I think we could have scored a few goals more than we did. So that pleased me most, the ability to create the chances and even to score seven goals over two games is also good.”
Perhaps the star performer on Monday, and across the summer in general, was Rio Ngumoha. He scored the first goal of the day after just two minutes and caused repeated issues for the Bilbao backline with his jinking dribbling style.
Slot claimed the teenager has been “showing good things every time in pre-season” ahead of an anticipated bigger role this term.
English (US) ·