Arne Slot has been blunt about Liverpool\u2019s position in the Premier League as the club prepares to face Brighton & Hove Albion at Anfield. Sitting 10th, 10 points behind leaders Arsenal, Liverpool have lost six of their 15 matches and carry a level goal difference after conceding 24 times. The 3\u20133 draw with Leeds United was the latest example of surrendered leads and costly dropped points.<\/p>\n
There has also been off-field drama. Mohamed Salah\u2019s future was described as up in the air after a public outburst in which the 33-year-old alleged he\u2019s been \u201cthrown under the bus\u201d for the club\u2019s failings, adding that his relationship with Slot is non-existent.<\/p>\n
Slot used his pre-game programme notes to underline where the responsibility lies and what must change. \u201cWe know also that had we managed certain moments better our points return could\u2014and almost certainly should\u2014have been better,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is where we need to improve. We need to show more consistency from one game to the next and we need to manage key moments better.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt times this season we have shown our quality and our potential\u2014beating Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid, defeating Arsenal and Aston Villa are among the first to spring to mind\u2014but our aim has to be to win more regularly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want and need to improve our position in the Premier League. I would be the first to admit that 10th place is not good enough for a club like Liverpool.\u201d<\/p>\n
Slot did not accept superior competition as an excuse. \u201cYes, the league is even more competitive than ever this season and a lot of teams are close in terms of points, but this does not justify where we are right now. We have to take responsibility for changing this.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is why I was so pleased with how we performed at San Siro, because everyone involved on and off the pitch took responsibility for helping Liverpool show a better face.\u201d<\/p>\n
Virgil van Dijk, in his own programme notes, reflected on the collapse at Leeds and praised the response in Europe. \u201cOf course we were disappointed with the way in which the Leeds game finished last weekend,\u201d Van Dijk admitted. \u201cWe felt we had the game under control, so to surrender the lead as we did\u2014twice\u2014was extremely frustrating. We made mistakes and we were punished.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat has happened too often this season, of course, but I have to say, I thought the boys showed great character to regroup and go again only three days later. The win over Inter Milan was both an important one and, in my opinion, a well-deserved one too.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know the pedigree that team has, reaching two of the last three Champions League finals, so to beat them in their own stadium, and to keep them as quiet as we did in an attacking sense, is extremely pleasing. To win any game in the Champions League, particularly away from home, you need to be able to deal with pressure.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to defend as a team, concentrate for 90+ minutes and have the courage and confidence to play your own football as well. I thought we showed all of those qualities on the night, and in the end we got our reward with Dom [Szoboszlai]’s late penalty.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Slot demands responsibility as Liverpool seek to turn inconsistent Premier League form into wins…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5054,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,172],"tags":[1047,1307,1032],"class_list":["post-5055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-epl","tag-champions-league","tag-collapse","tag-contract-disputes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5055","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=5055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}