The Liverpool boss has claimed he is "surprised" by the scrutiny on his position ahead of the meeting with Marseille on Wednesday
Arne Slot has defended his record as Liverpool head coach
Arne Slot has defended his record as Liverpool head coach(Image: )
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Arne Slot insists he doesn't face an uphill battle to restore the faith of Liverpool supporters despite the problems that the Reds have faced this season.
The reigning Premier League champions have struggled to defend the crown they won in 2024-25, and currently sit fourth in the table and 14 points behind leaders Arsenal.
Many fans' frustrations boiled over at full-time in Saturday's 1-1 draw with Burnley, with Reds players booed at the full-time whistle. Slot said he understood supporters' concerns after the match, and ahead of Wednesday's Champions League clash with Marseille he has now defended his record as Reds boss.
After being asked if the faith in him held by fans was fading, Slot told TNT Sports: "Do people not expect that to be possible for me? To be successful? It's new to me, but if you're one-and-a-half years in the job and have already won the Premier League, when the club has won it twice in 30 years, I'm surprised to hear that.
"But if that is the situation, then I have to accept that. I've tried the same things as last season this time around. Every time we've been a goal down, I've made offensive substitutions, and wherever I can, I am playing a team that is as offensive as possible.
"You cannot play attacking football with the amount of ball possession that we have. Sometimes, it's a disadvantage that we have that much ball possession, because then people expect more from the ball that you have.
"But the moment you don't have it, you have to press really high, because with a low block, you don't have ball possession. Everyone knows what we need to do in order to make the next step in this transition phase, but sometimes a bit of patience is needed."
Meanwhile Reds legend Phil Thompson has criticised the fans who booed, claiming that Slot deserves more respect for the job he has done at Anfield.
“I’m more than pleased with Slot," Thompson the Footy Accumulators No Tippy Tappy Football podcast, in partnership with BOYLE Sports.
"I get really disappointed at the moment with some of our fanbase. People want a change in the manager, but six months ago we had the parade of all parades after winning the league trophy, and everyone says, well it was Jurgen Klopp’s side, no, he still got to do it.
“Where are we going with this? We’ve just won the league, people swarmed into Merseyside from all over the world for the parade of all parades, and you think, what short memories. We like to think we’re different, but we’re going down the other way with this.
“I take Manchester United for this, with their struggles for many years, and why? Because they’ve changed and changed managers all the time. That brings about a change of players all the time, and what happens? You spiral out of control. I don’t want to go back to that. We’ve been there and had too many Manchester United fans laughing at my football club, and now we can do the same for them.
“It’s far too soon to be questioning the manager and the team when it was a settled team that he had from Jurgen Klopp, and we had so many top players, and then we had Diogo Jota and his brother dying, they are young men. How have they had to deal with that afterwards?
“This is not what we do, it’s not us. Give the fella a bit of slack. Be careful what you wish for. I can’t sit here and say there’s not a problem, I get it. Fans want a bit more excitement, but we are getting better. I always said we would be better in the second half of the season.”