Liverpool head coach Arne Slot was brutally honest ahead of his struggling side's Champions League clash with PSV
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 25: Arne Slot, Manager of Liverpool, speaks to the media during a Liverpool press conference ahead of the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 League Phase MD5 match against PSV Eindhoven at AXA Melwood Training Centre on November 25, 2025 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Matt McNulty/Getty Images)
Arne Slot speaks to the media during a Liverpool press conference ahead of the Champions League match against PSV
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Arne Slot admits he feels “guilty” about the “ridiculous” run of form that has left Liverpool’s Premier League title defence in tatters and cranked up the pressure on the Reds boss. And he accepts still having to prove himself at Anfield despite leading the club to their record-equalling 20th championship last season.
Slot’s side slumped to a sixth defeat in their last seven top-flight games with a dismal home 3-0 reverse to Nottingham Forest on Saturday that has left them in the bottom half of the table behind neighbours Everton.
Liverpool will hope for some relief when they aim for a fourth win in five games in the opening Champions League stage with the visit of PSV Eindhoven on Wednesday evening.
And with scrutiny growing over his future, Slot said: “To be honest, I didn't expect myself to be in this situation with the way we go about it tactically and the quality of players we have. You would never have expected us to have lost so much.
“It is ridiculous, almost. Something I didn't expect to be in, not at any club I worked at let alone if you manager of Liverpool. That is unbelievable. If you can find an excuse you will never find enough excuses to make you perform like this.
“For sure I take the responsibility and feel guilty for it. We're busy working on it, I'm at a club where we are just used to being successful but there are times when we are not and then we are going to put that extra effort in.
“As coach I try to lead by example and work harder, being really well prepared, and that's what our players do also. The team does everything we can.”
In the immediate aftermath to defeat against Forest at the weekend, Slot assumed responsibility for the damaging sequence of eight defeats in 11 games in all competitions.
And asked if he had to prove himself at Liverpool, Slot said: “Every day you have to prove yourself if you are working at a club this level. You cannot say ‘we won the league' or 'we did this or this' and now it's okay.
“If you work at this level the next game is always the most important and you have to prove yourself every single time.
“That is for me, for the players and that is what we like about working in this environment – that you can never rest and you always have to keep going if things but most definitely if things don't go well.
“So, yes, I don't know if I have to prove myself to the fans as well as I have to prove myself to myself and the players and to everyone involved in the football club.”
Slot added: “The simple things we must do better, and that's not what we are always doing at the moment. That's quite easy to solve.
“And if it doesn't happen that often, you think of the Johan Cruyff saying: ‘The simple things are the most difficult to do’.”