A body language expert has said that Arne Slot appeared "anxious" after Liverpool collapsed in a 4-1 defeat at the hands of PSV Eindhoven on Wednesday.
Liverpool's loss to PSV was the Reds' ninth loss in their last 12 games, and the pressure is mounting on Slot to turn the team's season around.Body language expert Darren Stanton told OLBG that the effects of that pressure were visible on Slot's face during a post-game interview.
“Arne Slot is very anxious," Stanton said. "We’ve got a couple of fake smiles in there. We call those masking smiles not because he’s being deceptive or he’s lying, it’s when you’ve got a lot on your mind and there’s a lot of pressure going on in your life.
“He’s worried about his position and his blink rate is very quick. Usually, the average person blinks 20 times per minute. Slot’s blink rate doubles when speaking to the media so there’s a shift in emotion inside as well as stress.
“He’s got his hands tucked in tightly as well. When he gives his fake smile, he says he’s not spoken to the Liverpool board about the PSV game so he is worried about his position and what the club’s management are going to say.”
Stanton also assessed Curtis Jones' post-game interview, in which he held nothing back, saying that Liverpool was "in the s–––" and that he was "beyond angry."
“From Jones’s comments and the emotions he goes through in his interview, it shows that there’s an underlying problem in the dressing room," Stanton said. "They feel like they’ve got no direction or leadership.
“Jones pushes his shoulders back which is similar to when someone pushes their chest out to seem bigger than they are but in this context, he’s pushing his shoulders back because he’s angry.
“He’s thinking quickly but he’s also looking down a lot so he’s tapping into his gut instinct and when he takes a breath, it’s a split second decision to say shall I say something or shall I not? Should I keep my mouth shut? But then he goes on to say exactly how he’s feeling and that’s how he’s feeling internally.
He added: “There this conflict where the players can’t be themselves and they can’t play to the best of their ability because they’ve been given a strategy by the manager and none of them think it’s working.
"Clearly, there’s an internal conflict and a problem between the players and the manager and that’s leaking out from Jones.”