Slot slams Liverpool players after City defeat and demands change for PSG clash
Arne Slot was angry with his Liverpool players
Arne Slot was angry with his Liverpool players
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Arne Slot slammed Liverpool for the lack of fighting spirit that saw them slump to an abject FA Cup surrender at Manchester City.
And the Reds boss has warned his side need to become more ruthless defensively or suffer a similar fate in their Champions League quarter-final first leg at Paris Saint-Germain next week.
Erling Haaland scored a hat-trick and Antoine Semenyo also notched as the Reds were thumped 4-0 in their quarter-final at the Etihad on Saturday afternoon.
Liverpool were arguably the better team before Haaland’s penalty opener prompted the visitors to leak four times in 20 minutes either side of half-time.
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A frustrated Dominik Szoboszlai declared after the game the Reds had lacked fighting spirit as they suffered a fourth defeat in seven games.
And when told of the midfielder’s comments, Slot said: “I did not feel this until the moment they scored the 1-0.
“I missed the fighting spirit definitely in the first 10 minutes after half-time and afterwards both teams accepted it was 4-0.
“In that 10-15 minutes of time, I missed fighting spirit, the willingness to win your duel, to be there first, to make it difficult for either a pass or a cross or a finish. That is something we definitely have to do better on Wednesday.”
Virgil van Dijk fouled Nico O’Reilly for the penalty, with Liverpool guilty of giving the ball away at their own throw-in to spark the second and third goals.
Slot lamented Liverpool’s lack of game management before the interval, and said: “After the 1-0 were still in the game, then twice we conceded from our throw-in. The second goal was a similar one to one we conceded here earlier this season just before half-time.
“If you look at the goals, there I see runs not being followed, I see crosses that are not being blocked, duels in front of goal not being won. I see the same pattern but that’s not a pattern over 90 minutes but how we concede goals.
“Then you sometimes need to understand if you are 1-0 down you have to do everything right to go in 1-0 down at half-time. Sometimes it is about maybe trying to score the 1-1, in others it is about making sure you don’t concede.
“Those 20 minutes the way we defended when we conceded the four goals is absolutely not good enough.”
Slot added: “It wasn’t as if it was chance after chance after chance. If it is, then you think maybe we should change our gameplan or tactics, but it is about understanding the importance of a moment, that you need to be ruthless in those moments even if things go against you or mentally you find it a bit hard when again you are 1-0 down after 35 minutes when you feel you are at least equal.
“This has happened many times to us. Mentality could be a part of it, but it is never an excuse.
“If you play for this club, being 1-0 down or 2-0 down is never an excuse not to put that effort in at that specific moment. It is almost impossible to get a result if you face teams of this quality if you let a runner go or don’t block a cross.”
The away end of 7,600 Liverpool fans began to empty midway through the second half, and Slot said: “If we don’t want them to leave early we have to perform better. We have to show now that we react after a loss like this.
“The fans have always been supportive even today, during large spells of the first half they were very loud and before the game they were very loud.
“It is up to us to react not only for them but for ourselves, that’s what we need to do Wednesday. We need to play like we did for the first 35 minutes but in moments of defending we need to be much more ruthless than we were today."
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