Arne Slot speaks after the UEFA Champions League clash with Girona in Spain
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Arne Slot is pictured before the UEFA Champions League, league phase football match between Girona FC and Liverpool FC at the Montilivi stadium in Girona on December 10, 2024
(Image: JOSEP LAGO/AFP via Getty Images)
Arne Slot admitted he was “far from pleased” with his team despite Liverpool extending the 100% start to their Champions League campaign. Mohamed Salah netted the only goal from a penalty awarded after a VAR check for a foul on Luis Diaz by Donny van de Beek on 63 minutes to earn the Reds a 1-0 win at Girona the Estadi Montilivi on Tuesday night.
It was a sixth win out of six for Liverpool in the new-look opening stage and effectively secured progress direct to the last 16 with two games to spare.
But the Reds were reliant on an excellent display from Alisson Becker, who made a string of excellent saves on his return from 11 games out with a hamstring injury.
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And Slot pinpointed two areas in particular where he believed his team had underperformed on the evening.
“If you ask me about all the six games, I’m really pleased with all the results,” said the Reds head coach. “I’m really pleased with the first five games, but I’m far from pleased about the performance tonight.
“What wasn’t I pleased about? I wasn’t pleased with a lot. Especially two things.
“If you play against a team that has such a good idea about football and knows how to bring the ball out from the back like some of the teams we’ve played recently such as Real Madrid and Manchester City, you need to be so intense if you want to make it difficult for them.
“But if you are waiting a few seconds to press them, then this team can cause you a lot of problems. They showed that in their games, except PSV, in the Champions League this season. I almost feel sorry for them as they deserve so much more (from the Champions League).”
Slot added: “We have an incredible goalkeeper. But the other thing is every time we lost the ball, we were not aggressive enough and they could go almost all the way to our goal and have a shot.
“We had hardly any control at all over the game. Maybe the second half was a bit better – I’m trying to be positive. Even at the start of the second half for maybe the first five or 10 minutes they went on a counter-attack one or two times still.
“Like so many times this season, if a team plays us they do something different than they do in their other games. That might be a compliment for us and the work we are doing.
“Girona played with a nine, similar to Levekusen. It wasn’t always easy for us to press them well but I don’t think it had that much to do with tactics. In general we were by far not aggressive enough without the ball. It helped that we scored a goal from a penalty.”