Arne Slot faced tough questions over his players’ failure to ‘do the basics’ in their 4-0 loss to Man City on Saturday, but he insisted his game plan was not to blame.
Slot’s post-match press conference was always going to be a difficult one given the nature of Liverpool’s exit from the FA Cup quarter-finals.
But it was a rare occasion in which the Dutchman was grilled with questions from certain reporters in the media room at the Etihad.
During an intense five minutes, Slot was pressed by two journalists on Liverpool conceding four goals in 20 minutes and why his players demonstrated a clear lack of commitment.
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What do you say when your players aren’t doing the basics?
That I don’t agree with what you are saying. But in moments you are completely right.
If you say to me from the 15 runs Man City players make, 15 times my players don’t run, I disagree with you. But if you simply look at the goals, there I see runs that are not being followed, I see crosses not being blocked, I see duels in front of goal that are not won. Then you are completely right.
That’s not the story of the whole game, but every single time we forget to block a cross, we forget to defend in front of goal, we forget to follow our runner, every single time it’s a goal.
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - Saturday, April 4, 2026: Manchester City supporters do the Poznan during the FA Cup Quarter Final match between Manchester City FC and Liverpool FC at the City of Manchester Stadium. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
It’s not the pattern of the game, but what I’m saying is it was the pattern of the crucial part of the game. When you go 1-0 down, you then know that’s the crucial part of the game and that is when they don’t do the things they’ve got to do. So why is that?
I don’t think they had a chance after 1-0 until they scored the 2-0 [eight minutes later]. But I completely agree with you, if you look at the way we concede a goal I see the same pattern. But that’s not the pattern over 90 minutes, that’s the pattern in how we concede a goal.
Then you sometimes miss the lack of need to understand that if you’re 1-0 down just before half-time you have to do everything right to go with 1-0 down to half-time. Sometimes it’s about maybe trying to score the 1-1 but in other moments making sure you don’t concede.
Like I said, in those 20 minutes, the way we defended when we conceded the four goals is absolutely not good enough. Then I see exactly the same things as you do.
Concentration? Effort? Which?
It’s a bit of everything. Effort comes first I think. Of course if you look at how they outplay that and the timing, the moment Haaland comes in, but I think we have to make it more difficult for them than we were doing. Because they’re already good players and if you don’t make it difficult to good players it’s immediately a goal. That’s what we saw four times.
Wednesday we face again very good players, so we have to make it more difficult for them in those moments when we have to defend than we did today.
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - Saturday, April 4, 2026: Liverpool's Milos Kerkez (L) and goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili react to conceding the third goal during the FA Cup Quarter Final match between Manchester City FC and Liverpool FC at the City of Manchester Stadium. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Do you think the fact you have that 20-minute period where the game goes, do heads drop after the first goal? Is it an inability to cope with a setback? Is it tactical? Is it panic? What is it you think causes that difference?
It could be a bit of everything of course. But it wasn’t as if it was chance after chance after chance. So when it’s chance after chance after chance you concede you start to feel like ‘hmm, maybe we should change our game plan or our tactics’.
But if it’s moments, which it was because I don’t think they had many more chances than the goals they scored, then it’s about understanding the importance of a moment and understanding that you need to be ruthless in those moments.
Even if things go against you or if mentally you find it a bit hard that again you’re 1-0 down after 35 minutes where you felt you were at least equal to the other team. This has happened many times to us, so yes, mentality could be part of that, but it’s never an excuse.
If you play in this shirt, if you play for this club, then being 1-0 down or 2-0 down is never an excuse not to put that effort, in that specific moment, in. Then it’s almost impossible to get a result if you face teams of this quality.
If you let your runner go or you don’t block a shot or you don’t block a cross against players of a different level you can maybe get away with it, but not at this level.
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