Arne Slot pushed back on Virgil van Dijk\u2019s suggestion that members of the squad were shirking responsibilities, while conceding he must shoulder the blame for recent failings. The manager rejected any suggestion that players\u2019 characters should be questioned even as the captain called for accountability.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou should be angry,\u201d the Dutch skipper demanded. Slot adhered to that brief but disagreed with the idea of questioning his players\u2019 character.<\/p>\n
When asked whether the squad had lost their fight after six defeats in seven Premier League games, Slot was unequivocal. \u201cNo, no we haven\u2019t,\u201d he insisted. \u201cBut in moments of games we have lost too many duels.\u201d<\/p>\n
Slot framed the problem as one of attention rather than attitude, pointing to possession statistics as context. \u201cI think the last game we played we had 75% possession, which means you only have to defend 25% of the time and I think in and around our box we only had to defend four times,\u201d he said. He explained how switching between possession and defending had left players less sharp at crucial moments. \u201cIf I have to defend for half-an-hour I am in defend mode, so I just throw myself at every ball, but when our defenders and maybe even including the goalkeeper are thinking about ball possession and then in the moment they have to defend, we are not as switched on as we should be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cody Gakpo confirmed that van Dijk\u2019s message was shared internally as well as with the media. \u201cIn the days after that [defeat to Forest] we were, I don’t want to say angry, but we tried to speak together and be honest with each other what we have to do to perform better on the pitch,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody is aware we have to take responsibility on and off the pitch. This was a conversation you have with a teammate. It wasn\u2019t really a \u2018meeting\u2019 meeting but we are aware we have to take responsibility, that we have to do better with certain things on the pitch. That\u2019s what we spoke about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gakpo added: \u201cWe also know we have to stick together and that\u2019s what we will try to do again to put in good performances and get wins.\u201d Andy Robertson urged unity in similar terms. \u201cIt\u2019s important now that people don\u2019t lose the belief in their ability,\u201d the Scot insisted, \u201cthe confidence that they have, and it\u2019s important that we all stick together within the training ground.\u201d<\/p>\n
Slot did not soften his assessment of the run of results as Liverpool prepare for Wednesday\u2019s Champions League clash with PSV Eindhoven. On a run of eight defeats from their last 11 games and suffering a joint-worst start in Premier League history, he said: \u201cI would describe it as ridiculous, almost,\u201d Slot sighed. \u201cSomething I did not expect to be in. Not at any club I was going to work at, let alone Liverpool. That is unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Slot rejects Van Dijk’s claim players shirked duties, accepts blame and blames lapses in focus again<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4707,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,172],"tags":[220,299,872],"class_list":["post-4708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-epl","tag-andy-robertson","tag-arne-slot","tag-cody-gakpo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4708","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=4708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}