Liverpool boss Arne Slot. (Photo by Glyn KIRK / AFP via Getty Images)placeholder image
Liverpool boss Arne Slot. (Photo by Glyn KIRK / AFP via Getty Images) | AFP via Getty Images
Liverpool fell to a 3-2 loss against AFC Bournemouth as the Reds’ 13-match unbeaten run came to an end.
Arne Slot refused to blame Virgil van Dijk for Liverpool’s opening goal conceded in the loss to AFC Bournemouth.
Liverpool were on top of the Vitality Stadium clash before they conceded in the 26th minute. Virgil van Dijk failed to properly clear a long ball, which Bournemouth capitalised on with Evanilson netting. And for the Cherries’ second goal, it was Van Dijk who played Ryan Jimenez onside.
But Slot felt that the windy conditions meant that it was difficult for Liverpool’s captain to judge the ball over the top. The Liverpool head coach said: “I don't think it is completely fair to Virgil to blame him for the first goal because you could see throughout the game how much impact the wind had on certain balls. In the end of the game, Virgil hit a long ball towards Mo [Salah] and I was expecting it to go to the goalkeeper, but all of a sudden it fell to Mo. So he wasn't the only one who once in a while struggled with the wind.
“It's not the first time this season where it has only been seven minutes where I wouldn't even say we were struggling, but the other team was part of the game as well. In those seven minutes we conceded two. Of course, the second one was when we were down to 10 because after the first goal Joe Gomez had to go off with an injury. He wanted to try, thought he could but then he couldn't. 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 are ourselves.”
Meanwhile, Slot explained why he substituted Milos Kerkez at half-time. The left-back returned to Bournemouth since his £40 million transfer to Liverpool last summer. But he was withdrawn at the interval, with Andy Roberson brought on amid interest from Tottenham Hotspur.
Slot admitted that Kerkez was never going to play 90 minutes given the number of games he’s played recently. ”There was not an injury and I wouldn't say it was tactical,” said Slot.
“It was obvious already before the game that it was not smart to play him another 90. There is a lot to be said about the players I constantly play and I have to keep them fit, I have to manage their load. It was yesterday when the 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 are always in a certain risk zone and I already had to make a substitution in the first half. So that means if you leave him on and you take him out at 60 minutes, your second substitution is left. So that is why I decided to take him off at half-time because it was always the intention to take him off somewhere in the second half. I did it now a little bit earlier.
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