During Saturday night’s press conference following Liverpool’s 3-2 loss against Brentford, Arne Slot offered his thoughts on the game.
On their visit to Gtech Community Stadium, the defending Premier League champions failed to pick up any points to build on their Champions League victory from the previous week.
The Bees were up thanks to efforts from Kevin Schade and Dango Ouattara, but Milos Kerkez scored a close-range goal in first-half extra time.
Mohamed Salah responded in minute 89, but the Reds were unable to overcome the gap when Igor Thiago converted a penalty given to the hosts by VAR.
See here for what head coach Slot told the media after the game.
Regarding his feelings following the game…
Again, unsatisfactory, as you mentioned. Even though you are only here for two days, you are always looking for a better outcome if you win a football game during the week. However, I was also hoping for a better performance because the one we had was really different from what we are used to. Our performances have been better than tonight, even though we are losing.
About ‘what he would recognize most that he was disappointed with’…
doing the fundamentals correctly. They are a very good team at winning duels and second balls, so you have to give them credit for that as well. However, it is obviously difficult to win a football game if the other team wins more duels and second balls than you, especially if that is also something they are playing off. However, if you are 1-0 down, 2-0 down, or 3-1 down with the energy in the stadium, that is definitely helpful for them. As I’ve mentioned numerous times, it’s also challenging to win a football match when the set-piece balance is in their favor.
Regarding Brentford’s first goal, which was the result of a long throw-in…
We simply worked on the training pitch yesterday in order to get ready for the meeting today. We didn’t only prepare them for that, though, because Brentford is renowned for their excellent set pieces. Their second goal, in my opinion, was a spectacular counterattack. I believe that it should never be used as an excuse at this time, but if I mention that it was a soft penalty, I hope you won’t tell me that’s a bad excuse. It was a very soft penalty to concede, though.
Regarding the tactical changes he made to the team during the half…
Mo played a little bit more centrally, like we did this week against [Eintracht] Frankfurt, but Florian [Wirtz] also played a lot on the inside in the first half. It’s always ideal to have Mo on the side, where he can get his crosses in and his one-on-ones, but if you are behind 2-1, I was expecting them to be a little lower in the second half. However, they were heavily involved in the game, so it wasn’t as though the second half was entirely ours. They undoubtedly had their times to score the 4-1 as well, even though we won 3-2 and had a couple opportunities to win 3-2.
Regarding if this performance is among the worst he’s ever been let down by throughout his tenure at the club…
Yes, I believe it ranks among the worst football games I’ve watched in my time here. Typically, we lose when we are behind 2-1, 3-1, or 1-0. In addition, the only 20 to 25 minutes of our game today that I truly enjoyed were after we fell behind 1-0. Regretfully, our wonderful moment with Florian ended without a goal since you need a little bit of luck after that. However, those moments can give you energy and get you back into the game. However, thirty minutes later, With their long throw-ins, set-pieces, and other outstanding plays, I believe they won the game once more. Again, they accomplished a lot of things well, so please don’t concentrate on what I just said.
Then, I believe it was a pivotal moment when Cody dribbled inside the area and they failed to play the ball, shortly before they scored the 2-0 goal. Every referee in the world, I believe, would say that if you showed them both scenarios—the penalty we gave up and that particular moment—they might say that neither was important, but if I had to choose between the two, I would unquestionably give Cody the one.
We were unfortunate because, although I don’t believe the referee intended to award a penalty for that, he did think he would award them a free kick. However, the VAR declared it to be inside, so if you believe it to be a free kick, then it is a penalty. Playing football, like we did today, may bring such terrible luck.
Regarding the causes of Liverpool’s current performance in contrast to last season…
Many of the things you just mentioned might be related to that. As I’ve mentioned numerous times, teams use a particular style of play against us, which is a highly effective tactic to employ, and we still haven’t come up with a solution. Every time, losing 1-0 after five minutes doesn’t help all that much. It has something to do with teams knowing which tactic to use against us. Even when we don’t play well, we can still score two goals and create more opportunities than we can from open play alone. However, you can’t even compete, which isn’t what we do right now. We don’t compete up there because we just give up too many goals, and I don’t only look at our defense for that; we do that with 11 guys.
It certainly has to do with how you change a lot in the summer, so I don’t think it’s shocking that it can go somewhat like this. To be clear, though, I didn’t anticipate it to follow four consecutive losses. That it’s usually a little rocky when you change, which isn’t shocking, but we’ve lost four straight games, and I’m not sure if that’s been an excuse, but five of those games have been away. Therefore, if you are not feeling well, this can also be of little use at times.
Regarding the seriousness of Curtis Jones’ injury…
We must wait and find out. I’ll have to wait and see because he requested to be removed yet left without requiring extensive care. There are numerous games; another one will be added every three or four days.
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