Liverpool manager Pers Slot at a press conference (photo by Matt McNult / Getty Images)
Liverpool manager Perne Slot spoke to the media after the shock 4-1 defeat at home to PSV Eindhoven, discussing his costs and the “shock” the players received.
It was another result of a red night for the Reds in what is proving to be a disappointing season, with the team now on a nine-year losing streak of Twelve Games in all competitions.
Read on to see the full slot analysis as he takes questions at the post-match press conference.
Arne Slot’s Post-PSV press conference in full
In what went wrong in the second half…
Especially the [second] The goal I think, although at the beginning of the second half – before they get the goal – we have already fought more than the first half. We had a lot of problems, or we had a lot of difficulties, being aggressive in the press as we were in the first half. That had little to do with Hugo Ekitike, who went straight after half-time behind him a little and that’s why his pressure wasn’t as good as the first 45 minutes.
I know, because I follow the Dutch League, if you are not guilty enough with PSV then they have players who can take you out because they are a very good team, very good football players. That’s what we saw in the second goal they got. But, again, after scoring the second goal I think we had our chances to equalise, but for the first time this season we didn’t take the chances we had.
In that he said some of the mistakes are…
I think it’s always about the team and I think we can all do better, people and three [moments] You talk about it but I think this goes for everyone, including me. I don’t think this is the time to dwell on individual mistakes. It’s time to talk about the team instead of individual mistakes because individual mistakes are made in football. We have to make sure that if we do it then we react or do it so that we can lead to the goal and if it leads to the goal that we are good enough to come back to this game. This is a team thing and not an individual thing.
When replacing Ibrahima Konate with Federico Chiesa …
yes, [it was tactical] I found that the person is difficult because until he ends up explaining that I think he is [Konate] you played a good game. But, if you go 3-1, I think that the thing that I have been doing – and I will continue to do – I was able to tell the outside world because I found it more difficult with the mistake that he makes. Unfortunately it didn’t lead to anything but a 4-1 win.
That players say they are ‘shell-shocked’ by the results…
I think it’s a shock for everyone. To the players, to the journalists here, to me, to everyone. This is shocking and it is, very, very, very much considering the quality we have. Is it a lack of confidence? I didn’t see that in the first half. Of course, it is difficult if after losing 3-0, directly in this game you concede a goal. I saw the attitude these players have shown many times since I was here, I come back the way you would like to come back, it created another way to go back 2-1. But, at the end of the game, I saw that maybe one or two players were affected and we were 3-1 and 4-1, actually.
That speculation about his future is correct…
I don’t think it matters if it’s right or not. But that’s normal, that I understand. When any manager around the world loses football matches, let alone as many as we have lost, it is normal for people to have an opinion about that and if that is right, that is for people to judge. But it’s normal, I think that when you lose more often that people start talking about that.
How he is ‘concerned’ about his position…
I disagree with you about the quality [of Liverpool’s players] they do not show. I see enough times of players who show their quality but it doesn’t show in the shoe or in the results, that’s clear. But no, I’m not worried – what I mean by that is that my focus is on other things than worrying about my position. I’m trying to analyze [and] Try to help the players as much as possible, and obviously I’m not doing it the way I did it last season because when you talk about individual mistakes, I think it’s also something that comes from the team effort. So, again, I need to do better and that’s what I try to do every single day, improve the team, and that’s where the focus is, to be honest.
In the support of people above him in the club …
Yes, but not in the sense that they tell me for one minute, ‘we support you, we support you, we support you,’ but we talk a lot when we win, and when we lose. Then they help me, the team, so yes we have those discussions but they don’t cost me all one minute to tell me that they still trust me. But we have regular discussions and in the discussions I feel trust, but I have not spoken to them after this game, so let’s see.
How long does it take for him to get defeated…
Long. It’s longer than winning because after winning you mean each of the following. Now you are trying to find the answers as possible but it is not as easy as people might think because if it were easy I would have used those answers to start earning. But the focus is, as it always happens in football, especially in terms of trying to prepare them for the next game and preparing them is not only intellectual, that can mean that I have to have individual discussions or group discussions with the players.
I try to put as much effort as possible to improve this situation – not only me, by the way, my staff do the same and the players put in a lot, a lot, a lot of effort. Even when you look at a 3-0 loss and a 4-1 loss you often feel like I’m not doing enough, but again today I saw a team that was trying after many obstacles but unfortunately couldn’t get a result.
