Arne Slot has passionately defended Liverpool's recent performances whilst reaffirming his dedication to attacking football as the Reds prepare to face Arsenal on Thursday. The head coach, whose side must overturn a daunting 14-point gap to the league leaders, maintains that any changes to Liverpool's attacking output stem purely from a shortage of available forwards, not through his choice to alter the system.
Liverpool arrive at the Emirates on the back of an eight-match unbeaten streak in the Premier League, though four of those encounters ended in draws. Following a disastrous spell that saw Liverpool suffer nine defeats in 12 fixtures across all competitions between late September and November, Slot has prioritised defensive stability, particularly after a devastating three-game sequence where they shipped 10 goals whilst scoring just once against Manchester City, Nottingham Forest and PSV.
Despite facing criticism for supposedly "boring" displays in recent weeks, Slot insists both he and his players remain as committed as ever to attacking with pace and purpose as they head to North London without key forwards Alexander Isak and Mohamed Salah, who netted 52 goals between them last campaign, and possibly Hugo Ekitike, who faces a late fitness assessment.
"Packing the team with midfielders is not something I am doing by choice," Slot said. "I am doing it because certain players are not available and that is something that needs to be really clear because I am a manager now for six or seven years and I have always played with wingers and I have always changed my wingers with new wingers coming in.
"So I always have it 4-3-3 with real wingers and never 5-4-1 or 4-4-2 and I have adjusted it maybe four or five times in my career to bring in a midfielder as a winger because I thought the other team - when I was at different clubs to Liverpool - would have more quality than us so I wanted to make it more solid.
"But if I am known for one thing then it is attacking football, playing a lot of attackers and bringing a lot of attackers in when we are a goal down.
"So I find it hard to hear that we play boring football let alone that I am not playing attackers."
Slot added: "I agree that [steadying the ship] was the first thing that needed to happen but I didn't do that to try and play defensive football.
"I think that is a misconception. We always pressed the other team as high as we could up the pitch, all over the pitch. And when we have the ball, we try to create as many chances as we can.
"That doesn't really work, that I can see as well, that for all the ball possession we have we don't create enough chances.
"Everyone can see that as well but I haven't gone to a style of football where I started to play with five at the back or we started to go all defending our own box.
"I did not change our style but teams have changed their style against us. Our style is not to steady the ship, go back and defend your own box for 90 minutes. Not at all.
"Every single game we press them as high as we can but it's no use pressing the goalkeeper if he kicks every ball long. A lot has been said about the difference between how teams play against us and other teams.
"And I know why, because it works really well against us to play long balls and in a low block because we struggle to create chances. I would do it.
"Fulham not once, even against Arsenal and Manchester City it was 4-3-3, 4-3-3, and the question is why did they play with five against us? I can answer that question but it would not be smart of me to do so."