Liverpool head coach Arne Slot Tom Dulat/Getty Images
Looking tanned and refreshed after a family holiday in Dubai, Arne Slot cut a relaxed figure at Liverpool’s Kirkby training base on Friday.
Three straight defeats, the worst run of the Dutchman’s managerial career, may have cranked up the pressure externally, with the inquest into the Premier League champions’ shortcomings continuing throughout the international break, but Slot remains unshaken.
“I don’t think these players need me to tell them what has happened,” he said ahead of Sunday’s Anfield showdown with arch rivals Manchester United.
“We have played 10 games (in all competitions) — won seven, lost three. The three we lost were all by very close margins. Twice we lost in the last minute (to Crystal Palace and Chelsea). In the other game (Galatasaray away), both teams got a penalty, both times VAR should have overturned those decisions, but only the one we got was overturned. The margins were so small, but we shouldn’t be dependent on those margins.
“These players, who have experienced so many things, don’t wake up at night thinking: ‘Wow, we have lost three times’, but if you have lost three games in a row and you wear a Liverpool shirt, it doesn’t matter who your next opponent is, you have to react.”
Slot wasn’t just putting on a brave face for the cameras. His confidence that Liverpool, who sit a point behind leaders Arsenal, aren’t too far away from where they need to be is underlined by how he has approached preparations for Sunday’s contest.
Those on duty with the Netherlands, Egypt, Scotland, Sweden, France, Germany and Northern Ireland had all completed their international commitments by Monday night. Hungary and Georgia played 24 hours later, with Alexis Mac Allister the final Liverpool player in action when he scored twice for Argentina against Puerto Rico in Miami in the early hours of Wednesday UK time.
However, rather than rush players back onto the training field, Slot opted to give his star names some time off. Mohamed Salah was pictured soaking up some sunshine on a yacht and taking a dip in the sea.
Friday was the first time the squad had reassembled since going their separate ways at Stamford Bridge 13 days earlier. Earlier in the week, the likes of Curtis Jones, Joe Gomez and Federico Chiesa, who didn’t go away on international duty, had trained at Kirkby with members of the under-21 squad, while the injured duo of Alisson and Wataru Endo continued with their rehab programmes.
Slot is looking at the bigger picture, with United’s visit the first of seven games across three competitions in the space of 21 days. Next Wednesday’s Champions League trip to Eintracht Frankfurt is followed by Brentford away, Crystal Palace travelling to Anfield in the Carabao Cup, Aston Villa and Real Madrid at home, and then Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.
There was a sense, after October 4’s last-gasp defeat to Chelsea, that the break had come at a good time for Liverpool after such a bruising week. There was certainly much for Slot to ponder as he enjoyed a week’s stay at the plush Dubai beachfront resort of Jumeirah Marsa Al Arab with wife Mirjam, son Joep, and daughter Isa.
Bedding in so many summer signings has proved challenging so far, with the situation compounded by established stars either struggling for form or being short of match fitness.
There’s been the constant chopping and changing at right-back, the ongoing search for midfield balance as Slot tries to get the best out of Florian Wirtz, and the slow start to Alexander Isak’s Liverpool career after he missed most of pre-season due to his strike action at Newcastle United.
“You can’t go from no playing time to playing three times a week,” Slot said. “If you rotate and win, you’ve done the right thing. If you rotate and lose, you should have played with the same players. That’s how football works. You have to find a balance.”
Slot had been studying the data, which shows how opponents have increasingly been setting up differently against Liverpool. It was January’s 2-2 draw with United at Anfield that helped to convince the former Feyenoord boss that changes were required to make them better equipped to break down low blocks.
“After seven (league) games, we’re already one third of the way in terms of the amount of long balls we’ve had to defend compared to the whole of last season,” he said. “We have to find answers to that and the first answer is not to concede so many goals.”
Set pieces, both defending and attacking them, are one area where significant improvement is being targeted. Including the Community Shield, Liverpool have conceded two goals in six out of 11 matches, while at the other end, they have been wasteful.
“We are still the team that, from open play, creates the most xG (expected goals), most shots on target,” Slot continued. “But we’ve conceded nine (in the league) with four of them from set pieces. Out of the other five, two were from fast breaks and three from open play. I think, in open play, we are conceding too many crosses, so that is one of the things that we have to address and that we have to do better.
“If you told me we’ve conceded 40 per cent of our goals from set pieces and that the number one in the league (Arsenal) has scored 60 per cent of their goals from set pieces, and we’re only one point behind, I’d think, ‘That’s not bad’. But of course, conceding four is far too much for a team that wants to compete.”
Slot spoke about Liverpool benefiting from fewer “acts of brilliance” from their attackers this season compared to this time last year and how he hopes that the sight of United lights a fire under Salah.
The Egyptian has netted 16 times in 17 appearances against them — more than against any other team. He has either scored or assisted 18 of Liverpool’s last 25 goals against United in all competitions.
A risk and reward approach with keeping Salah high up the field when out of possession has been under scrutiny in the wake of Chelsea’s late winner when the run of Marc Cucurella, who provided the assist for Estevao, went untracked. The Spain full-back told Sky Sports that it was an area Chelsea had targeted.
“I heard the comments from Cucurella and saw how they scored, but I can also show you five or six moments where Mo could have made the difference for us,” Slot said.
“If that had happened, we would have had the same conversation like we did last season, where he made the difference so many times for us. If that doesn’t happen, then there are probably comments like this. There is always the balance between winger and full-backs.”
Salah, who has only scored twice in the Premier League so far this season, returned to Kirkby on a high after his double against Djibouti helped Egypt qualify for next summer’s World Cup. He was rested for their second game against Guinea-Bissau.
He wasn’t the only one to benefit from a change of scenery. Cody Gakpo followed up his two penalties against Malta with a stunning strike for the Dutch in their victory over Finland.
Dominik Szoboszlai grabbed a late equaliser for Hungary against Portugal, Hugo Ekitike proudly made his first senior start for France, Andy Robertson led Scotland to a couple of precious qualifying wins, and Conor Bradley impressed in Northern Ireland’s triumph over Slovakia before missing the defeat to Wirtz’s Germany due to suspension.
Isak didn’t score as Sweden slumped to damaging defeats at the hands of Switzerland and Kosovo, which cost manager Jon Dahl Tomasson his job, but he did get another 180 minutes under his belt, with Slot declaring that the £125million striker’s “pre-season” is now complete.
There were also promising signs from Mac Allister, who not only scored twice for Argentina against Puerto Rico but played the full 90 minutes — something he hasn’t done for Liverpool since April. “The season hasn’t started in the best way for me, and this moment is important,” he told reporters in Miami.
Having missed much of pre-season, Mac Allister hasn’t been able to exert anything like the same kind of influence on the team so far this term. “He’s a player who has experienced so many things in his career already that he will be back at the level he wants and the level I want from him,” Slot said.
With Ibrahima Konate and Ryan Gravenberch expected to be available after fitness scares, Liverpool have arguably come out of the international break looking in better shape than they went into it.
Captain Virgil van Dijk has been stressing the need to keep things in perspective after what he described as “a little blip”. He’s made it his mission to ensure that there’s a collective response from both players and supporters alike at Anfield on Sunday.
If Liverpool avoid defeat, they will set a new club record of 10 home league games unbeaten against United and Slot will reach a century of points in fewer games than any previous manager in the club’s history.
But having been held by United in this fixture in the two previous seasons, what’s really required is a performance which showcases the gulf that currently exists between English football’s two most successful clubs.
