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Photo by Nigel French/Sportsphoto/Allstar via Getty Images
The Liverpool manager rued the series of errors his side made in a 3-1 loss to Fulham. It was only the second loss his side have had in the Premier League.
For just the second time this season, Arne Slot’s side dropped all points in a Premier League match. Liverpool were not convincing in the early going but still managed to take a lead in the 14th minute thanks to a rocket from distance by Alexis Mac Allister. The lead did not last long as the defensive unit conspired to concede three times in the first half after a series of errors and overall poor play. In his post-match press conference, Slot felt that despite the score line at the half his side actually performed decently, especially in the opening minutes of the match, but individual errors were what undid the squad.
“I think especially 15 minutes of the first half. I saw also parts before we conceded or before we conceded the second one [that were] normal parts for us. I saw some very good build-up situations, the way we positioned ourselves. So, it wasn’t 45 minutes of disaster but the errors we made I think are something we are not used to, and that’s something different than playing poorly, in my opinion.”
When asked if the errors were disappointed him, Slot was of course frustrated. He felt that it was unusual for his side to make so many errors, as well as to not be able to recover for them. According to Slot, it was the quality of Fulham that made the difference.
“Yes, of course, but not only me – the players themselves, the teammates, the fans. But one of the reasons why we are in the position we are in is we don’t make a lot of mistakes and if we do players try to make up for them. Now, this is also what we tried to do with the second goal but, unfortunately, instead of the ball being deflected [and] going behind, it went into the goal.
This can happen, especially if you play a good team like Fulham. If you make mistakes, they have the quality to punish us. I think in the end [in the] second half we created so many chances that we could have made up for it. But we lacked time, especially in the end, because in the first 20 minutes of the second half it didn’t feel to me as if we could score a goal. But in the last 20 to 25 minutes, I think it was clear for everyone that we could score the third. That’s why actual playing time wasn’t the most in the last 25 minutes.”
With a large lead at the top of the table and Arsenal only managing a draw on Saturday, Liverpool may have relaxed mentally for the Fulham match. Slot pushed back on the idea that his side may have been complacent ahead of kickoff, however.
“I think there is no reason for us to be complacent. We are not No.1 at the moment because we win every game with a margin of three or four goals. I think everyone that has seen our games [knows] it takes us so much effort, so much hard work to win games of football, combined with quality of course. The team that won the league in the last four seasons were already 3-0 up at half-time almost every single game they played.
That’s not the way it is for us, so we are fully aware of the fact we have to compete for seven more games. We saw it on Wednesday when we played Everton, it was a close call. Today it was a close call and many times we’ve been on the right side. Today we were on the wrong side, mainly because of the errors we made.”
While the first half performance was one to forget and the result was frustrating, Slot said he told the squad there were positives from the second half to take away from the match. The Liverpool manager now wants his side to focus on their full week of preparations ahead of the match with West Ham next Sunday.
“The message was I mainly told them they showed great character in the second half but not for the first time this season we had a difficult first half. It didn’t happen a lot, but I can come up with Southampton at home, for example, where we played quite poorly. Normally we are able to make up for that because of the mentality of the team, how fit they are, the subs we can bring [on]. Today it wasn’t enough and now we have a whole week to prepare for West Ham.
Everybody needs to be aware – and they are, so actually I didn’t even need to tell them – that the only way we can win a game of football is by hard work, 90 minutes [of] constant effort. Because I’ve said it a few times now, we are not the team that are leading at half-time with 3-0 or 4-0 with three, four or five acts of brilliance. It is hard work every time we won a game of football this season, except for two or three games.”
