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Arne Slot conducted a lengthy press conference on Tuesday ahead of the midweek Champions League encounter against PSV Eindhoven.
Perhaps it was unsurprising that, back in front of the Dutch media, Slot was eager to chat. In spite of Liverpool’s recent disastrous form, he cut a relaxed figure, laughing and joking with reporters from his homeland, as the pressure on Merseyside continues to mount.
Whether Slot will be in such jovial spirits after Wednesday’s Champions League meeting at Anfield is another matter. In his pre-match press conference, which neared 30 minutes by its conclusion, the ex-Feyenoord boss discussed a new Liverpool injury, the major difference to last season, whether he needs to “prove himself”, and if his players still have the appetite to compete. Here’s what he had to say.
Joe Gomez injury: “He is one of the five defenders we have. Normally I wouldn’t go into the details that much, but he had an injection last week on his knee.Apart from me making the decision to play Dom [Szoboszlai] in that position, it is to do with him not being completely fit. He is in the group for tomorrow, as he was on Saturday, but he wasn't able to train last week every single time.”
Confidence in the squad: “Until now it hasn't been an issue. If you look at the way we played most parts of the game on Saturday, the first half-hour was everything I'd hoped it would be except us scoring the goal. It hasn't been every game this season we've been able to create that many in the first half-hour against a team defending low. That was, for me, a positive, but the first time they arrive in our 18-yard box with a set-piece they scored a goal and it took a while for us to recover from that.
“Then we conceded a minute after half-time and then after that I saw a team trying a lot. I even showed them how many times we arrived in the box, how many crosses we gave, but they defended much better in their box and we did in and around our box. That is what everyone keeps reminding us of and we keep reminding ourselves as well.
“We have to help ourselves defensively a bit more – I'm not talking the last line, I am talking about the whole team because then maybe people will also see on the ball we are not doing so many things differently from last season but the amount of goals we are conceding is the big difference between this and last season.”
Current situation: “Ridiculous, almost. Something I didn't expect to be in, not at any club I worked at, let alone if you’re manager of Liverpool. That is unbelievable. If you can find an excuse you will never find enough excuses to make you perform like this. It is unexpected for the club, for me, for everyone, but we are also working at a club that if you ever needed to face this maybe this is the best club to face it because the harder it gets at a club like this, the more we are together, the more we are trying to the things Liverpool usually achieves.”
Difference to last season: “Conceding far more goals than last season; that is general in terms of conceding. Last season we conceded zero set-pieces up to now; now we have conceded nine. The amount of goals we have conceded and the amount of goals coming from set-pieces is, again, close to ridiculous for a club like us.
“Of course there are probably more details that are different but the biggest one is the goals we concede because from open play we are still able to generate enough chances for us to get a result. But after half an hour the first time you defend you score a goal that is not what we did last season and not of our standards.”
Take responsibility: “For sure I take the responsibility and feel guilty for it. We're busy working on it, I'm at a club where we are just used to being successful but there are times when we are not and then we are going to put that extra effort in. As coach, I try to lead by example and work harder, being really well prepared, and that's what our players do also. The team does everything we can.”
Do you need to prove yourself? “Yeah but it has nothing to do with a situation like this. Every day you have to prove yourself if you are working at a club this level. You cannot say 'We won the league', or 'We did this or this' and now it's OK. If you work at this level the next game is always the most important and you have to prove yourself every single time. That is for me, for the players and that is what we like about working in this environment – that you can never rest and you always have to keep going - most definitely if things don't go well. So, yes, I don't know if I have to prove myself to the fans as well as I have to prove myself to myself and the players and to everyone involved in the football club.”
Players still have lost the appetite: “No, we haven't. But in moments of games we have lost too many duels. I think the last game we played we had 75 percent ball possession, which means you only have to defend 25 percent of the time and I think in and around our box we only had to defend four times. The first one was a set-piece which led to a goal, the second one was a goal that for me was incorrectly disallowed because I didn't see the handball but maybe I didn't see the right angle - and the third time was the 2-0.
“It is not a thing that over 90 minutes we are not ready or we are not defending well enough, we only have to defend a few times but I've had this in the past – not six from the seven games lost but it's not the first time that I experienced that a team which has so much ball possession for half an hour you are waiting for us to score a goal and you have to defend only one time.
“If I have to defend for half an hour I am in defend mode, so I just throw myself at every ball, but when our defenders and maybe even including the goalkeeper are thinking about ball possession and then the moment they have to defend we are not as switched on as we should be. Maybe the answer is less ball possession, because that is what we had against Real Madrid and against Villa and both of the games we won. I don't think it's a general thing otherwise you cannot dominate the game the way we do if we don't win enough duels but in moments we have to defend better because [Manchester] City was the same, although City were the better team in the first half they didn't create that much but the few times they did create we were lacking in intensity in our duels.”
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