Arne Slot admits he now faces one of his toughest tests as Liverpool head coach after Manchester United claimed their first victory at Anfield in more than nine years, handing the struggling Premier League champions a fourth consecutive defeat in all competitions.
Liverpool once again paid the price for poor finishing and another costly lapse from a set piece, as Ruben Amorim celebrated successive league wins for the first time since taking charge at Old Trafford.
Harry Maguire’s late header in the 84th minute sealed a 2-1 win for United, and the defender admitted post-match it was “embarrassing” that it had taken the club 51 games to finally achieve that feat under Amorim.
Slot, meanwhile, could only reflect on a performance where his side dominated the chances but failed to make them count.
Cody Gakpo struck the woodwork three times and missed a golden opportunity to level the score late on, as Liverpool slipped to yet another defeat following recent losses to Crystal Palace, Galatasaray, and Chelsea.
“As a manager you constantly face challenges,” said Slot. “When you start and you need to win games, when you go to a bigger club, when you are the successor of Jurgen Klopp and people are saying: ‘This is the biggest challenge you have ever faced.’ Now we have lost four times in a row and that is also a challenge. The life of a football manager is also an ongoing challenge.
“But do we lose confidence? I can not see that yet because every game we’ve lost we were able to create in the second half an unbelievable amount of chances. If we can keep producing what we are doing and maybe do a few things a little bit better, then there is every reason to expect that we will win football games again.
“Of course there is also the part that, apart from the two goals we conceded, we conceded maybe two or three more chances. This is constantly the struggle we have when we are 1-0 down, then you need to take a bit more of a risk.”
Slot also expressed frustration that play was allowed to continue in the build-up to Bryan Mbeumo’s early opener, insisting referee Michael Oliver should have stopped the game when Alexis Mac Allister suffered a head injury. The midfielder required four stitches following the incident.
“The main thing I should do now is not complain at these kind of things,” Slot said. “We should have done much better after Macca was on the floor but the health care of the players is important and if a player needs four stitches you would hope everyone understands he needed treatment.
“But we could have done better and that is not the reason we lost. The reason is we missed far too many chances to win a game of football.”
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