Liverpool manager Arne Slot has insisted that his team is “not losing confidence” despite suffering a fourth consecutive defeat, following a 2-1 loss to Manchester United at Anfield on Sunday.
The defeat, sealed by Harry Maguire’s late header, marked the Dutchman’s most difficult spell since replacing Jürgen Klopp earlier this year.
Speaking in his post-match interview, published on the club’s website on Monday, Slot dismissed any talk of panic and urged his players to stay committed to their attacking style, despite recent setbacks.
“When you lose four times in a row, it’s a challenge, but every single game we’ve lost, we were able to create in the second half an unbelievable amount of chances,” Slot said.
The Liverpool boss pointed to fine margins and missed opportunities as key reasons behind their recent struggles.
“If you just put all the highlights of our losses together, you would say it’s hardly possible that we lose these games. We’re creating eight, nine, ten open chances — that’s not normal at this level. We just have to start finishing them,” he added.
Slot also expressed frustration at another set-piece lapse and a first-half incident involving Alexis Mac Allister, who required stitches after a clash of heads just before United’s opening goal.
“If a player needs four stitches, you’d hope everybody understands he needs immediate treatment. But it didn’t happen. Still, that’s not the reason we lost — we missed far too many chances,” he said.
The manager noted that Liverpool’s fair play ethos sometimes works against them.
“We are not a team that goes to the floor pretending it’s a head injury to kill a counter-attack. That’s not who we are. So if a player of ours is on the floor, you’d hope people say, ‘It’s Liverpool, they don’t do these things — let’s blow the whistle,’” he explained.
Despite the poor run, Slot maintained that morale within the squad remains high.
“I cannot see we’ve lost confidence. If we keep producing what we are doing, and do a few things a little better, then there’s every reason to expect that we start winning football games again,” he insisted.
The Dutchman also shrugged off suggestions that the pressure of succeeding Klopp was weighing him down.
“You go from challenge to challenge. When I came here, people said, ‘Let’s see how he does at Liverpool.’ Now we’ve lost four times, it’s another challenge. That’s football. You just keep going,” Slot said.
Liverpool will be looking to bounce back when they travel to Germany to face Eintracht Frankfurt in their Champions League Matchweek 3 fixture on Wednesday.
