Arne Slot says his team have to work harder than others to achieve the same result
Liverpool head coach Arne Slot believes part of Liverpool’s problems this season is that they have been unlucky to keep losing out to opponents on the smallest of margins.
To make his point, the Dutchman pointed to how much of his side’s points dropped this term have been due to narrow moments. Against Manchester City on Sunday, Liverpool led with 15 minutes to go in normal time, but City scored twice in the late stages to completely turn the game around.
“Margins have been so small for us this season,” Slot said. “Every single time the other team has a bit of a sniff in the game, all of a sudden they score, [whereas] we need to put so much in it before we are able to score.
“I didn’t see that much difference in the last 20 minutes [against Sunderland this week] as I saw against City. The difference was that the first time they arrived after us scoring it was a goal. Before that we were challenging them in their box to score the second. So the margins are really small.”
Liverpool’s manager expressed a similar view earlier this week with regard to injuries, saying that his side have been particularly unlucky compared to other teams. Slot’s example was Rennes’ Jeremy Jacquet. After Liverpool agreed a deal in January to bring him to Anfield in the summer, the French right-back also sustained an injury in training.
“Even if we sign a player and he’s not even playing for us he gets injured,” Slot said. “Sometimes it feels like that but the moment you start to feel it’s all bad luck.
“It probably comes to you as well so we should keep it away as much as possible and focus on the performance and what we can do to improve it.
“But the amount of times we conceded late goals in extra time is far more than usual. The question is, is it bad luck or are we to blame?
Slot added that his side now have to do everything possible to avoid further injuries as they approach the run in.
“The load management is important because the last thing we could use right now is another injury,” Slot said. “That is always the difficult balance for the manager, including his medical staff, what is the best decision to make every single time.
“It is also true that a player could get injured if he has to play three games in seven days. But it also happened many times that a player could play three games in seven days.
“So that’s the challenge we are having, but the most important thing is we have to train today, see how the players are doing, listen to how they feel and then make the best possible decision.”
