Paul Gorst assesses the fallout from Sunday's 3-2 loss to Manchester United and what it means for Arne Slot as Liverpool suffer their 11th Premier League defeat
Liverpool's Dutch manager Arne Slot reacts after the English Premier League football match between Manchester United and Liverpool at Old Trafford in Manchester, north west England, on May 3, 2026. (Photo by Darren Staples / AFP via Getty Images) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No video emulation. Social media in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No use in betting publications, games or single club/league/player publications. /
Arne Slot reacts after his Liverpool side's 3-2 loss at Manchester United on Sunday(Image: Darren Staples / AFP via Getty Images)
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For a manager who rarely loses his cool at Liverpool, even in the face of this season's provocation, Arne Slot broke character inside the Old Trafford press room on Sunday evening.
The Reds boss has always maintained a veneer of calm when discussing the incidents, the decisions and - too often this season - the injuries. But Slot skirted the edges of anger when talking about Manchester United's second goal in Sunday's 3-2 loss at Old Trafford.
Reflecting on Benjamin Sesko's effort, which a VAR check could not prove conclusion evidence of handball, Slotsaid: "I don't think it's a surprise to anyone this season that if there's a VAR intervention or if there's something that could be left or could be right (50-50) then the decision goes against us.
"That has been the whole season every single time this season. I remember Paris Saint-Germain at home, getting a penalty for a soft touch on Alexis Mac Allister but of course the VAR intervenes and says no, no, no, this is not a penalty.
"Then one week later when I see Paris Saint-Germain play against Bayern Munich and get that same soft touch but the penalty stays.
"I saw last week my goalkeeper on the floor with an injury and the referee doesn't stop the game (Freddie Woodman against Crystal Palace). I see a player of United off the pitch today and the referee stops the game when we try to play on.
"That has been our whole season. But the second goal we didn't concede because of a handball, we conceded it because we lost the ball in a stupid position and we lost a few big moments afterwards in duels.
"We have to first look at ourselves, that is completely clear and obvious, but that decisions have gone every single game against us, that's also completely clear and obvious.
"When we played United the first time this season, I had one of my players needing five stitches on the floor (Mac Allister), and the referee didn't stop the game and we conceded.
"This is a complete pattern over the whole season, but there is also a pattern that we concede ridiculous goals when we are the better team, one or two are switching off and then we concede a goal.
"That we have more influence on, so I should focus much more on that than on these referee decisions that go against us. It's clear that it's the whole season the same."
Those who maintain their belief that Slot is the right man to turn things around at Anfield this summer will listen to such impassioned breakdowns with a sympathetic ear and the head coach.
Even to the more objective, he has a point when he references incidents like the Mac Allister head wound against United in October and the injury to Woodman, who was stricken on the floor when Palace made it 2-1 at Anfield recently.
Both occasions could, on another day, have gone in Liverpool's favour, but reeling off a list of decisions you feel aggrieved about over the course of a full season is rarely advisable for any manager.
Soundbites like that are more likely to project the air of a coach losing their grip on proceedings, particularly when the latest defeat means you have now suffered 18 across all competitions. Those of a less generous persuasion would also include the Community Shield shoot-out loss in August, bringing the total to 19, which equals the most in a season this century.
Excluding that defeat to Palace on penalties in the August curtain-raiser at Wembley, there are only three seasons since 1962 - when the Reds were promoted - where they have lost more than this term under Slot. The most recent of which came in the 2009/10 term when Rafa Benitez's campaign was into its final days.
Back then, Benitez was trying to arrest the decline of the entire club as the ruinous reign of owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett took Liverpool to the brink of administration. Under-performance on the pitch - Benitez's side finished seventh with a place in the Europa League - was down the pecking order of the true problems at the time.
Slot has no such mitigation this time out at a club who are flourishing off the pitch, with commercial revenues breaking through the £700m barrier in the most recent financial results, announced in February.
Eleven league reverses is the worst for 11 years, when Brendan Rodgers's time at the club was into its own final throes. The Northern Irishman eventually stayed on at the end of the 2014/15 campaign but by mid-October he had been replaced by Jurgen Klopp.
If the end of the Benitez and Rodgers' reigns should be cause for concern for Slot, who heads into the summer in the last of a three-year contract, he can at least boldly claim that neither had a Premier League triumph still relatively fresh in the memory on their CV.
What should worry him more than a bad day at the office at a venue that is rarely kind to Liverpool, however, was the manner of the defeat at United. Losing at Old Trafford has happened to the best Reds teams over the years but their sluggish start merely continued the season-long trend.
Liverpool have conceded the first goal in a whopping 21 matches and the pattern of them being jolted in action rather than forcing the issue themselves has been chronic. Contests sometimes just appear to develop around the Reds rather than them wilfully engaging in one.
Whatever Slot says in the final moments before kick-off is either wrong or no-one is listening. It's difficult to say which one would be worse at this stage.
"What gives me confidence? The quality in the team," captain Virgil van Dijk said. "We have the quality to hurt any opponent. But sometimes it foes also with a combination of the mindset. I will be ready for it.
"I’m looking forward to it and I am going to make sure we get this done. Next up is Chelsea at home.
"I care so much about this club. I know that it has been a tough season but I will always be there in good and lesser good days.
"But we have three games left and the realisation has to come from ourselves, as a group and as players, to make sure that we are in the Champions League because of the impact of it for the financial side for the club.
"But also because we want to be playing in it against the best teams in Europe. It’s not easy. But we keep going."
Slot retains the backing of those who hold power at Anfield and at ownership level with Fenway Sports Group but the Dutch coach could use a stirring end to the season now with three games to come at home to Chelsea and Brentford, either side of a visit to Aston Villa.
The floating voters, undecided on where they stand after a wretched campaign not without its own mitigation, would likely want something to cling to going into another major summer of change at the club.
Van Dijk adds: "It has been ups and downs. Some wins have felt good. Winning feels good. But we can’t build on that and it has been the story of our season. That is what is difficult.
"Just to go up and down in your emotions is never a good thing. When you win, it’s happy days. When you lose, it is bad and you are held accountable. You have to take responsibility. It’s just life.
"It think it’s unacceptable that we have lost too many times as defending champions of the Premier League and we shouldn’t accept it whatsoever. There will be a lot of work that has to be done going into next season.
"When I am back from the World Cup, I will go into it. But there is a lot of work to do be done behind the scenes."