Head coach expects his “technically gifted” team to adapt more to the physicality that has been their weakness
Liverpool manager Arne Slot believes his team have struggled this season because other clubs try to force a style of play they are not used to on them.
Last season’s title-winning manager has previously expressed frustration that teams go long and direct against his team, and also target their weaknesses on set-pieces.
The Reds are bottom of the Premier League for set-piece goals scored and conceded. They have only scored six goals so far from set-pieces and let in 14. In contrast, Arsenal have scored 17 and conceded just five, while Manchester United have netted 14 and conceded 10.
“We always want to press high,” Slot said. “We always want to bring the ball out from the back, but unfortunately, we face teams that have a different approach, which is completely fair for them.
“Every team should play their style, which is best equipped for playing against us, and it’s shown that we are sometimes struggling with that style.
“It’s not always possible for a team to get pace in the game or to get things going if the other team tries to do everything to get that pace out of the game.
“When we play more open games this season, we’ve shown that we always want to be part of a game like that, and we’ve done really well. But games where we’ve dropped points had a different look and feel, but that’s not what we wanted it to be, but what was forced to us.”
However, the Dutch coach understand it’s his and his team’s responsibility to turn that around.
“The next step is making sure that if that playing style is forced on us, we are that good that we can change that towards the game we want,” Slot said.
Slot explained this as the biggest difference between his side’s success last season and their struggles this term, saying the league has drastically switched to a completely different way of playing.
“Things have changed massively,” said Slot. “I didn’t expect the league to be as it is this season, because I was here last season and for me that was completely different.
“Maybe once, twice, three times we saw similar things as we are seeing this season, but this season it has been a massive, massive, massive change.
“Look at the one that’s on top of the Premier League. It’s fair for me to say that they are by far the best set-piece team in the league. If one team has success – and Arsenal already has the success for a few years in terms of set-pieces – [the other teams] try to copy that.
“If you look at our players, we didn’t buy the biggest and the tallest ones that are a big, big, big threat in set-pieces.
“Many of our players are already technically gifted and are adjusting more and more to that physical style, which the Premier League has become even more and more.
“So that’s the positive thing, because if technically gifted players can adjust also to that physical style, which we’ve seen so many times this season, then you might have an advantage over the rest.”
Slot said earlier this week that good football was better than winning trophies, a comment that was unlikely to go down well with Liverpool fans. However, the manager has doubled down on his comments.
Liverpool’s coach said: “If you don’t play good football, it’s [almost] impossible to win something or to achieve something sustainable.”
