Arne Slot insists he was not criticising Manchester United for their style of play after the Red Devils beat Liverpool at Anfield, in fact he was handing them a compliment.
Ruben Amorim’s side pulled off an upset on Sunday, with an early goal from Bryan Mbeumo and a late winner from Harry Maguire securing a huge 2-1 victory for his side.
It was Liverpool’s fourth defeat on the spin, in all competitions, and Slot sounded frustrated after the latest loss.
His side created plenty of chances in the game, but only found the back of the net once through Cody Gakpo, with the Dutchman seemingly having a pop at Amorim’s set-up.
Speaking to the BBC after the loss at Anfield, he said: ‘It is always difficult to play against a team that defends in a low block and mainly plays the long ball.
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‘It makes it even more difficult when you go one down after one minute when one of our players are on the floor.
‘If you would have told me before the game that against the low block, against so many long balls, that we would have created as many chances as we did I would have not expected us to lose. But that is what we did.
‘We had enough chances to score more than one goal, but on the other hand again conceding two and one of the two was the set piece.’
The Reds brought their losing run to an end in emphatic fashion on Wednesday night with a 5-1 win at Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League and Slot responded to claims that he had been somewhat salty in defeat to Manchester United.
‘We faced a team that had their game plan very well in order,’ Slot told TNT Sports. ‘There was a bit of a debate over what I said after the game, but it was meant to be a compliment… so, they had a low block and played a lot of long balls. I was asked why it was difficult, and that was the reason.
‘It wasn’t criticism, it was me trying to explain why the game was made difficult. If you win the ball back after they’ve played it long, there are 11 players behind the ball. I would add that, to a certain extent, I was positive that we created as many chances as we did.
‘Against [Crystal] Palace, we were able to create a lot against a low block, the same against United, but not many games since I’ve been in charge have we been able to create many chances against a 5-4-1 low block. It wasn’t meant as a criticism at all.
‘It was a very smart game plan and certainly their last three signings – two of them for sure – had an impact on the game, in [Matheus] Cunha and [Bryan] Mbeumo.’
Slot will be hoping the big win in Germany has stopped the rot and will be looking to build on the momentum at Brentford on Saturday evening in the Premier League.
The Reds boss admits that even before the four-game losing run things were not perfect, accepting that criticism is valid.
‘[The scrutiny] is totally normal, losing four times in a row after we have won the league. We started the season well in terms of results, not always in terms of performances,’ he said.
‘The funny thing is, you can maybe argue that the wins we had we didn’t play as well as we did in the second halves against Palace and Chelsea, nor for the entire game against United – but it’s a results-driven world we live in, and I accept that.
‘When we were winning in the first set of games, I wasn’t that positive, and I wasn’t telling everyone how great we were. Even in the second half of last season, I’ve said many times that the margins were small and we were sometimes on the lucky side. We needed set pieces at that part of the season to bring wins over the line.
Liverpool's next five fixtures
Sat Oct 25: Brentford (a) – Premier League
Wed Oct 29: Crystal Palace (h) – Carabao Cup
Sat Nov 01: Aston Villa (h) – Premier League
Tue Nov 04: Real Madrid (h) – Champions League
Sun Nov 09: Man City (a) – Premier League
‘That told me something, and as a result of that, we thought we had to improve [the squad] in the window and make changes. But when you change, it’s quite common that you have to adapt to a new situation, and things can go a little bit like this [his hand moving up and down].
‘It’s not only going upwards; things can go down a bit as well. A very wise man told me this week that the important thing is that we grow together, and that’s what we need to do.
‘It’s not easy when you lose four games, but that’s why I have to tell the players what we did wrong and why we lost. In the three or four moments where we had to defend, we were not at it enough, and we missed too many chances.’
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