Liverpool have conceded four goals in their last two games but Arne Slot insists that Liverpool do not have a problem with giving the opposition ‘chances’ to score.
The Reds beat Athletic Bilbao 3-2 on Monday and then drew 2-2 with Crystal Palace in the Community Shield on Sunday with Virgil van Dijk particularly exposed.
Jamie Carragher wrote on X: ‘LFC looking great going forward but susceptible defensively, as we’ve seen all pre season. A lot of the goals conceded by LFC have come from going man to man really aggressively & leaving space in behind. Today Kerkez is getting dragged inside with Sarr leaving Gakpo chasing WB.’
Slot himself admitted “it needs maybe a little bit of adjustment defensively” but was keen to differentiate between allowing the opposition chances and conceding goals. Apparently Liverpool are doing the latter without really allowing many chances.
The Liverpool boss might be shocked to learn that Liverpool conceded three Big Chances on Sunday while the Reds created only two, with Palace having 14 attempts on goal to Liverpool’s 12.
Slot pointed to four new additions in the Liverpool line-up after a big-spending summer, saying: “You need some time, either to adapt offensively [or] to adapt defensively.
“But against [Athletic Club, in the 3-2 win], we didn’t concede one chance at all. Maybe one, I don’t know. But we conceded two set-pieces, which are also a big part of football, but that’s not from open play.
“I don’t feel we conceded that much today, but again, conceded two goals because the first big chance they got resulted in the penalty.
“And maybe I forget a few chances, but it felt to me that in the 78th minute that was their second big chance of the game. But in general, there were not many chances because they went to a low block.
“We don’t concede a lot of chances, but we do concede goals at the moment.”
Slot was understandably keen to underline his side’s attacking improvement, saying: “The whole pre-season we’ve seen we are able to create more and we are more comfortable on the ball.
“We create more opportunities, chances, we dominate maybe even more. Last season we had a lot of ball possession but that didn’t always lead to promising situations.
“Now we are better at creating and getting in promising situations than we were in my opinion throughout all of last season.
“The other side is also true. We’ve conceded four against Milan, one against the Japanese team, two against Bilbao and two again here today.
“What made us really strong last season was we mostly won by one goal. That had mostly to do with us keeping a clean sheet or at a maximum conceding one goal.”
Now it feels like Liverpool are set up to win every game 3-2.