Ryan Gravenberch confronted the crowd reaction after Liverpool were held to a 1\u20131 draw with Chelsea, questioning the boos that greeted the full-time whistle at Anfield. Dominik Szoboszlai and Virgil van Dijk both hit the woodwork as Liverpool pushed for a winner, while Florian Wirtz missed the game through illness.<\/p>\n
At full-time a chorus of boos rang around the ground. Speaking to TNT Sports, Gravenberch said: \u201cTo be honest, we need them (the fans) behind us,\u201d and added: \u201cOK we didn’t win, but I don\u2019t really think we deserved this [reaction]. The fans have to be behind us for the full 90 minutes because when they were behind us in the second half, we were pressing really well. We need them. Hopefully they wouldn\u2019t do it again in the next two games.\u201d<\/p>\n
The midfielder conceded the squad were frustrated by the result, noting that \u201cof course\u201d Liverpool were disappointed and that it \u201chasn’t been a great season\u201d as Champions League soccer for 2026\u201327 remains unconfirmed.<\/p>\n
Arne Slot faced renewed scrutiny over team management and selection after removing Rio Ngumoha with just over 20 minutes remaining, a decision that drew audible reaction from the stands. Slot told reporters that Ngumoha had asked to be substituted because of cramp: \u201cI had contact with him and he said that it was enough, so that’s why I took him off.\u201d He defended the tactical call: \u201cHe’s a good player but I don’t think he’s at the level yet to play at 60 or 50 per cent to then make the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
Slot acknowledged that \u201cmaybe the fans have a different opinion\u201d and said he \u201cknew the moment his number went up that that would have been the reaction.\u201d He remained steadfast that he can win back sceptical supporters, saying: \u201cYes, I do [believe he can turn things around and win back the trust of supporters]. Not this season, by the way. This season they will have their opinion and it will not change.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut if we can have the summer that we are planning to have, then I\u2019m 100 per cent convinced that we will be a different team next season than we are now. Different in terms of results, different in how things look, but it\u2019s not always that simple because sometimes you know what you have to do, but it\u2019s not always possible to also get exactly what you want. For us, for me, it\u2019s really clear what we are lacking this season and we\u2019re trying with the players we have now because one of the things we are lacking is players that are fit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Slot pointed to the club’s injury problems. The \u00a3125 million British transfer record signing Alexander Isak has been largely unavailable, Jeremie Frimpong has been in and out with niggles and struggled against Chelsea, and Hugo Ekitik\u00e9\u2019s season ended with a ruptured Achilles tendon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gravenberch challenged supporters after Anfield boos following a 1\u20131 draw with Chelsea. He appealed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13715,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,969],"tags":[1505,299,1304],"class_list":["post-13716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-premier-league","tag-accountability","tag-arne-slot","tag-benching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13716","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=13716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}