Arne Slot press conference in full as Liverpool boss admits players are “shocked” by PSV defeat

Liverpool manager Arne Slot spoke to the press after his side’s shock 4-1 defeat at home to PSV Eindhoven, discussing some of his substitutions and the “shock” the players find themselves in.

It was another nightmare result for the Reds in what is proving to be an awful season, with the team now losing nine of their last twelve games in all competitions.

Read on to see Slot’s analysis in full as he took questions in his post-match press conference.

Mainly the [second] goal I think, although in the start of the second half – before they scored the goal – we already struggled more than in the first half. We had more problems, or we had more difficulty, in being as aggressive in the press as we were in the first half. That had a bit to do with Hugo Ekitike, who straight after half-time felt his back a little bit and that’s why his press wasn’t as aggressive as the first 45 minutes.

I know, because I follow the Dutch league, if you are not aggressive enough against PSV then they have players who can outplay you because they are a very good team with very good football players on the ball. That’s what we saw in the second goal they scored. But, again, after they scored the second goal I think we had our chances to equalise, but not for the first time this season we didn’t take the chances we had.

I think it is always about the team and I think we can all do better, individuals and the three [moments] you are talking about but I think this goes for everyone, including myself. I don’t think this is the time to emphasise on individual errors. It is more the time to talk about the team instead of the individual errors because individual errors are made in football. We have to make sure that if we make them then we react or make it up so that it doesn’t lead to a goal and if it does lead to a goal that we are good enough then to come back into the game. That’s a team thing and not an individual thing.

Yes, [it was tactical] I found that one difficult because up until the moment you were just describing I think he [Konate] played a good game. But, if you go 3-1 down, I think the thing that I have always done – and what I will keep doing – is then bringing an extra attacker in. I found that hard because I knew the outside world would probably then focus even more on the error he made, but I think it was the decision I had to make. Unfortunately it didn’t lead to anything except they scored the 4-1.

I think it is a shock for everyone. For the players, for the journalists in here, for me, for everyone. This is a shock and it’s very, very, very unexpected if you look at the quality we have. Is it a lack of confidence? I didn’t see that in the first half. Of course, it is hard if after losing 3-0, straight into this game you concede a goal. I saw the mentality these players have shown so many times since I am here, came back in a way you would like to come back, created chances, we kept them in their half – and after another setback by conceding the 2-1, I also saw us creating chances again to score the 2-2. But, in the end of the game, I did see it affected maybe one or two players that we were 3-1 and 4-1 down, that’s true.

I don’t think it’s important if it is fair or not. But that it’s normal, that I understand. If any manager around the world loses football games, let alone as many as we have lost, it’s quite normal that people have an opinion about that and if that is fair or not fair, that’s for other people to judge. But that it’s normal, I think it is that if you lose so many times that people start talking about that.

I don’t agree with you that the quality [of Liverpool’s players] isn’t showing itself. I see enough moments that players show their quality but it doesn’t reflect in the score or in the results, that is clear. But no, I am not worried – what I mean with that is that my focus is on other things than worrying about my own position. I try to analyse [and] try to help the players as much as I can, and it is obvious that I don’t do it in the way that I did it last season because when you talk about individual errors, I think that is also something that comes from a team effort. So, again, I need to do better and that is what I am trying to do every single day, to improve the team, and that is where my main focus is, to be honest.

Yeah, but not in the sense that they tell me every single minute, ‘We support you, we support you, we support you,’ but we talk a lot if we are winning, like last season, and if we are losing. Then they are helpful to me, to the team, so yes we do have those conversations but they don’t call me every single minute of the day to tell me that they still trust me. But we do have the normal conversations and in those conversations I feel the trust, but I haven’t spoken to them after this game yet, so let’s see.

Long. Longer than after a win because after a win you’re straight away focused on the next one. Now you try to find answers as much as you can but that’s not as simple as people might think it is because if it would have been that simple I would have used those answers for us to start winning again. But the focus is, as always in football, mainly about trying to prepare them for the next game and preparing them is not only tactically, that could also mean that I need to have individual conversations tomorrow or team conversations with players.

I try to put as much effort in as I can to improve the situation – not only me, by the way, my staff does the same and the players are putting in a lot, a lot, a lot of effort as well. Although when you look at a 3-0 loss and a 4-1 loss you tend to feel as if we don’t do enough, but again today I saw a team that was trying after multiple setbacks but unfortunately not able to get a result.

Welcome to our Live Comments section, where new comments will appear automatically

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Notify me of follow-up comments by email.

Notify me of new posts by email.