Arne Slot\u2019s second season has hardened into a campaign defined by caution and awkward compromises. The Premier League winning manager, who once criticised opponents for defending in low blocks and relying on long balls and set pieces, adopted a back-five for only the second time in his Liverpool tenure against Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday evening. The change coincided with a 2\u20130 first-leg defeat.<\/p>\n
Slot had shown open frustration earlier in the season after a narrow FA Cup win over Barnsley, accusing the third-tier side of altering their approach. \u201cWe\u2019ve played 30 games this season and I\u2019d say 28 of my prematch meetings, I could just throw in the bin,\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n
Against PSG the Reds struggled to create. Liverpool managed three off-target shots across the entire contest and none in the first half. The PSG goalkeeper Matvey Safonov “didn\u2019t dirty his gloves once.” Slot conceded the team spent much of the evening on the back foot. \u201cWe were in survival mode for large parts of the game. But maybe also in the period of the season where we were in survival mode,\u201d he said. \u201cPSG was the better team,\u201d he added. \u201cBut we didn\u2019t give up and that\u2019s why we have a chance now still in this tie.\u201d<\/p>\n
Slot kept Mohamed Salah on the bench, explaining his decision: \u201cIn the last part of the game it was more about surviving us than having a chance,\u201d and: <\/p>\n
\u201cI think this was a 20\u201325 minutes where we only defending and Mo has so many qualities, but to be 20\u201325 minutes defending in his own box, I think it is better for him to save his energy for games coming up.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause they kept us alive by not scoring a few open chances. And now we can bring the tie back to Anfield. Not unfortunately, but in between there\u2019s still a very important game to be played for us against Fulham. Just in terms of the system, you\u2019ve not used it before.\u201d<\/p>\n
PSG coach Luis Enrique said to Canal+ that he had not expected the formation change: \u201cIt\u2019s a surprise because it\u2019s the first time Arne Slot has played with three at the back this year,\u201d and later told TNT Sports, \u201cArne Slot is a great coach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reaction from pundits was sharp. Jamie Carragher told CBS Sports: \u201cThat was like watching a team from a lower division.\u201d Steven Gerrard noted Liverpool had frustrated PSG \u201cfor large periods of the game,\u201d but judged the attack \u201ctoothless.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Slot’s side switched to a back-five and were outplayed by PSG in a 2\u20130 first-leg defeat and doubts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11238,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,1031],"tags":[1081,299,1304],"class_list":["post-11239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-paris-saint-germain","tag-adaptation","tag-arne-slot","tag-benching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}