Arne Slot laid into his Liverpool players despite maintaining their perfect Champions League record, explaining how they were “so easily out-played”.
Liverpool returned to action with their first game in a week, beating Girona unconvincingly through a second-half Mo Salah penalty.
It was a performance which left plenty to be desired as Girona were perhaps the better side up until the goal on the hour mark, leaving head coach Slot impressed by only one player.
Alisson came back into the starting line-up after more than two months out and was crucial in keeping Girona at bay when they were particularly threatening in the first half.
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“We have an incredible goalkeeper. I said as a joke, maybe the players wanted to see how fit he was to give him so much work,” Slot said.
“He showed he is probably one of the best – in my opinion the best goalkeeper – in the world.
“Let’s hope he can continue to keep bringing these performances and hope more he can stay fit.”
It nevertheless felt somewhat harsh to drop Caoimhin Kelleher, who will surely leave Liverpool along with a teammate next year.
On the match as a whole, Slot added: “If you ask me about all the six games, I’m really pleased with all the results. I’m really pleased with five games, the way we played. I am far from pleased about the performance tonight.”
When pressed to expand on what made him so unhappy about the display, he answered: “A lot. Especially two things.
“If you play against a team who has such a good idea about football and know how to bring the ball out from the back like some other teams we faced recently, like City or Real Madrid then you have to be so intense if you want to make it difficult for them.
“But if every time you are waiting a few seconds and then if you do press, you are so easily out-played as this team can cause you problems and this is what they showed during the whole Champions League campaign, except for PSV Eindhoven away.
“I almost feel sorry for them because they deserve so much more in this campaign than the three points they have now.
“And every time we lost the ball we were not aggressive enough, almost every time they just went all the way to our goal.
“We had hardly any control in the game, maybe the second half was better – I’m trying to be positive.”
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