The Merseyside club Will Not Change Forward-Thinking Philosophy Amid Current Struggles, Says Arne Slot
Liverpool's head coach has revealed that the Anfield decision-makers agree with his assessment regarding the recent downturn and he will not abandon their attacking style in quest for a solution. The head coach admitted that six defeats in seven games was below standard ahead of Aston Villa's visit.
Growing Expectations During Challenging Phase
Slot accepted the pressure was on before his altered lineup were eliminated from the Carabao Cup against the London club. However, he maintained that this need to reverse the decline is not coming from the club's ownership or executive leadership following a significant spending of nearly £450 million.
"They say similar things," commented the Liverpool boss, whose team next week face Real Madrid in the European competition and travel to Pep Guardiola's side in the Premier League.
Squad Quality Remains Unquestioned
The coach is convinced his team "possess an exceptional group if they are all fit and completely set for the schedule ahead". He said that the transfer window acquisitions in players such as the German international and Alexander Isak, who is probably unavailable again against Villa through injury, had left the club "in an excellent position for the short-term future and the distant prospects".
Integration Challenges
When pressed on why his team were struggling to integrate, he answered: "You don't really help me. 'Why, why, why?' I provide reasons and people say I'm offering alibis. I can identify several explanations why we are underperforming or experiencing losses as we do but, as I say every time, there are inadequate reasons to have a results sequence as we had now."
- Even if I could identify numerous reasons
- When you are Liverpool you should not suffer defeats
- In truth six defeats in seven games
Defensive Numbers
Only the Clarets (twenty-one) have faced more big chances from regular play this season than Liverpool (nineteen). The first-place team, the Gunners, have conceded only two. Yet Liverpool's coach rejects the team has been overly exposed and claims there is no reason to sacrifice his attacking principles for a cautious system after ten fixtures without a goalless performance.
"In my view we're not allowing many opportunities so I don't see a reason to change our playing style totally but we have to enhance in preventing goals," he said.
Specific Instances
"Versus the Red Devils, how many openings did we give up? When playing Frankfurt when we were ahead by two goals, we hardly conceded a shot on target. In all the games we have played so far we haven't given up a lot of chances. Not at all. We do concede a slightly more than the previous campaign but that stems from us being behind early so you take a bit more risk. But in general I don't believe that our issue is that we give up too many openings. Our challenge is we don't score the openings we produce."