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ARNE Slot questioned Liverpool’s effort and fighting spirit in their 4-0 FA Cup humiliation by Manchester City and warned his players to forget about winning the Champions League if there is a repeat against Paris St-Germain.
The Liverpool manager was taunted with chants of “You’re getting sacked in the morning” by City fans as a hattrick from Erling Haaland and another goal for Antoine Semenyo consigned the Merseyside club to their 15th defeat of the season, and heaviest of Slot’s reign.
Liverpool face PSG in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final in the French capital on Wednesday, and Slot told his players there must be a significant improvement after an 18-minute capitulation against City, when they conceded four times.
“That’s an unbelievable disappointment,” Slot said. “The 20 minutes where we conceded the four goals were not of our standard. If you want to have a chance of beating PSG or Man City, you have to do both parts (defend and attack) better. If you generate a chance, you have to score, and you cannot be so easily beaten with the four goals.
“In those 10 to 15 minutes, I missed the fighting spirit, but just 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.
“If you simply look at the goals, there I see runs that are not being followed, I see crosses that are not being blocked, I see duels in front of goal that are not won.
“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 a runner, every single time it’s a goal. If you look at the way we concede a goal, I see the same pattern, but that’s not a pattern over 90 minutes, but that’s a pattern in how we concede a goal.
“The way we defended when we conceded the four goals is absolutely not good enough.”
Asked if that was down to a lack of effort or concentration issues, Slot added: “It’s a bit of everything.
Effort comes first. We have to try 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 for good players, it’s immediately a goal, and that’s what we saw four times. And on Wednesday again, we will face very good players.
“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 mentally maybe you find it a bit hard. And this has happened many times to us.
“So yes, mental could be a part of that, but it’s never an excuse because 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, because 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.”
Thousands of Liverpool fans had left the Etihad long before the final whistle, with some heard singing Xabi Alonso’s name, but Slot had nothing but praise for the support he feels he and the team have received.
“We have to show now that we react after a loss like this and after so many disappointments we already had this season,” Slot said.
“The good thing is the fans have always been supportive, even today during large spells of the first half. They were very loud. So it’s up to us not only to react for them, but also to ourselves. That’s what we need to do Wednesday, when we again face a very good team, where we again need to play as we did in the first 35 minutes. But in moments of defending, we need to be much more ruthless than we’ve been today.” —The Telegraph
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