**Arne Slot sympathised with his players after they fell to a late 3-2 defeat to Bournemouth.**
Liverpool came from two down to level the score at 2-2 thanks to goals from Virgil van Dijk and Dominik Szoboszlai but Amine Adli struck in the last minute to hand the Reds a defeat and end their 13-game unbeaten run.
But Slot says tiredness and a lack of energy after their midweek win over Marseille was a factor.
“I think after we scored the 2-2, we were still trying, but I think it’s safe to say that a few players of ours ran out of energy,” he said.
“And I cannot even criticise them for that, because two days ago we had to play an away game in Europe. We’re the only team that played Champions League that has two days in between this time.
“After an away game, another away game against one of the most intense teams in the league. And I mainly, as you probably see, play the same players because of the players we have available.”
In another blow for Liverpool, Joe Gomez was forced off with an injury after Bournemouth’s opening goal, with Liverpool then conceding a second while playing with ten men as they waited to bring on Wataru Endo.
“Joe Gomez had to go off with an injury, he wanted to try, thought he could (continue), but then he couldn’t.
“And maybe that sums up our season. It’s every time something else, it’s every time something special how we concede. But we concede and the only ones to blame is ourselves.”
On Gomez’s injury, the Dutchman added: “Joe got a knock from Alisson.
“I think it was bone and bone. So yeah, you could see he was just not able to continue.
“And Ali had some swelling in his knee. So yeah, I don’t know if Joe is going to train in two or three days. That’s difficult for me to say, but it was clear that he couldn’t go on today.”
Andy Robertson, who has been linked with a move to Tottenham, came on as a half-time substitute for Milos Kerkez, but Slot would not be drawn on the Scotsman’s future.
He replied: “What do you think my answer is going to be? Have I ever said anything about transfers in front of this microphone? No, so my answer is always the same and it’s quite boring to always give the same answer.
“By the way, my press conference after the game are also constantly the same. And the answer is we don’t talk about transfers in public, not as long as there’s something to say.”
On the decision to bring Kerkez off at the break, Slot explained: “I wouldn’t say it was tactical.
“It was obvious already before the game that it wasn’t smart to play him the 90.
“I have to keep them fit. I have to manage their load. And it was yesterday when performance staff came to me and said, if we would have had an extra day, he wouldn’t have trained yesterday to recover a little bit more.
“So then you’re always in a certain risk zone and I already had to make a substitution. So that means if you leave him on and you take him out after 60 minutes, your second substitution is left. So that’s why I decided to take him off at half-time because it was always the intention to take him off somewhere during the second half. And I did it now a little bit earlier.”
Hugo Ekitike also started the game on the bench and explaining why that was, Slot said: “I decided not to play Hugo. That wasn’t because I didn’t like him or he wasn’t good against Marseille. That’s simply because I have only one number nine available for the upcoming weeks and months.
“He was out two weeks ago. With so many games to play, you have to manage his minutes. And I think for Jeremy Frimpong, it’s safe to say the same.”