Image Credits: Imago Images
Manchester City’s 4-0 win over Liverpool in the FA Cup quarter-final felt like another brutal reality check for Arne Slot’s side.
Erling Haaland’s hat-trick and an Antoine Semenyo strike ripped the tie away in a ruthless 20‑minute spell either side of half-time, turning what had started as a relatively even contest into a humiliation at the Etihad.
Liverpool actually created big chances of their own early on, but once Virgil van Dijk’s penalty concession opened the door for City, the response – or lack of it – will worry supporters just as much as the scoreline.
When your captain is talking about players “giving up” and the head coach is highlighting effort before tactics, you know this was more than just being outplayed by an elite side in form. This was Liverpool’s 15th defeat of a long, draining campaign.
Now Arne Slot, speaking to TNT Sports ahead of the clash vs Paris Saint-Germain, was asked if he was concerned at the way Liverpool have been conceding goals:
“Yes and no. It’s not the first time this season that we’ve conceded goals that were a concern to me.”
“Now there were four in one game, four chances conceded, four goals conceded. That’s not the first time this season. I think many times this season we’ve only conceded one or two chances and those were goals.”
“So the manner we conceded them, I think I could separate them ‘two and two’ where every goal you concede something goes wrong, and you would like to improve something, but two out of the four were goals I hated more to concede than the other two.”
He then revealed that two out of the four goals conceded at the Etihad were down to “effort” – or the lack thereof – of his players
“Two of the four had to do with effort. I always mind mistakes from effort more than mistakes from being bad on a football pitch.”
“Sometimes the other team does something really well, and that can happen, but two out of the four we lacked effort in those situations and that’s always a bigger thing than conceding because the other team does something really special.”
But as painful as the FA Cup exit is, Liverpool simply cannot afford to dwell on it with Paris Saint‑Germain looming in the Champions League quarter-final. The first leg at the Parc des Princes kick-offs at 20:00 BST, with the return at Anfield a week later, and that tie will now go a long way to defining how this season is ultimately remembered.
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