“I’ve been too positive,” admitted Arne Slot as he reflected on a major Liverpool rebuild that is only now “getting closer and closer to the team I want.”
The head coach believes he set the bar too high after a summer that saw eight additions to his Liverpool squad along with five high-profile departures, but also noted:
• Set-piece vulnerability: “Almost all the losses that we’ve had”
• Refereeing decisions: “We’ve been very unlucky”
• The Premier League intensity: “Sometimes he can play then he cannot play”
With Liverpool now on a run of five games unbeaten, Slot reflected on the growing balance he is finding within his squad and the improvements from those new arrivals.
“I think we are getting closer and closer to the team I want us to be,” he told reporters on Friday.
“That has gone with ups and downs, let’s be completely clear about that, but for me that makes complete sense because of all the changes we made during the summer.
“We made them on purpose, because we thought we needed to.
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Wednesday, December 3, 2025: Liverpool's Florian Wirtz receives instructions from head coach Arne Slot (L) during the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Sunderland AFC at Anfield. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
“If I’m completely honest, maybe I didn’t expect it to take maybe as long as it did, but looking back and reflecting on it now, I’ve been too positive.
“If you go with a new group, or not all of them are completely ready to play every single game 90 minutes in this intensity, you have to adapt.
“Sometimes he can play then he cannot play, so it takes maybe a bit of time. And we’ve been very unlucky.”
Why Arne Slot won’t accept ‘bad luck’ as an excuse
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Wednesday, December 3, 2025: Liverpool's head coach Arne Slot and first assistant coach Sipke Hulshoff (R) during the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Sunderland AFC at Anfield. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
While Slot’s assertion that Liverpool have been “very unlucky” could attract criticism, the Dutchman insisted that they cannot use their set-piece issues and poor refereeing decisions as an excuse.
“[We have been] unlucky with referee decisions,” he said.
“Even Saturday, when I said afterwards that the referee was completely neutral, I missed out on a red card [for Brighton‘s Diego Gomez].
“So another influential decision, but this time it didn’t hurt us, and we have to go to that situation.
“If a referee decision goes against us, it doesn’t matter, we’re still good enough to win. If we concede a set-piece, no problem we’re still able to win.
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Wednesday, December 3, 2025: Liverpool's captain Virgil van Dijk reacts to conceding the first goal during the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Sunderland AFC at Anfield. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
“Set-pieces is another thing, I think from almost all the losses that we’ve had, expect for one maybe, we’ve conceded from a set-piece.
“And that shouldn’t influence our result anymore, that’s why we have to improve, so we don’t depend as much on luck or bad luck.
“Because we are in that mix too many times – from the start of the season, because we were a few times lucky maybe in the start when we scored late goal winners.
“We deserved those wins, but still, they were small margins and we have to make sure that this team gets to a level that either referee decisions or set-pieces don’t influence our results as much as they’ve done in recent weeks or months.”