Andy Robertson has admitted Liverpool have a “huge uphill battle” to defend the title after their 3-0 defeat at Manchester City on Sunday, which leaves Arne Slot’s team eighth.
The reverse was a fifth in six league matches, with Liverpool eight points behind the leaders, Arsenal, after 11 games. Robertson said: “Obviously, we’ve given ourselves a huge uphill battle, but I don’t think any of the teams will really look at the league table until we’re halfway through.
“That’s what we’ve got to do but we’ve got to pick up points on a more consistent basis. Then let’s see where we are after Christmas time or whatever. We’ve just got to focus on ourselves and focus on performance levels.
“I don’t think you can talk about the title this early on in the season, regardless of what position you’re in, but you need to then consistently start winning games again for that to even come into question. It’s definitely not a question that’s getting spoken about in the changing room or anything.
“We just need to get back to the levels that we know we can, the levels that we brought the last two games in particular. If we do that on a more regular basis, then we pick up more points than we won’t.”
Liverpool were trailing 1-0 when Virgil van Dijk’s header was ruled out after Robertson, standing in an offside position, was adjudged to have interfered with play.
Julian Nagelsmann, the Germany head coach, has defended Florian Wirtz after criticism of his slow start to life at Liverpool, pinning some of the blame on the team's poor form and finishing.
Wirtz, a £100m summer signing from Bayer Leverkusen, is yet to register a goal or assist in the Premier League – though he has created 16 chances – while Arne Slot's side have struggled to sustain their title defence. The attacking midfielder started as Liverpool slumped to a 3-0 defeat at Manchester City on Sunday, a result which left them eighth in the table.
Nagelsmann has called for patience with the Germany international, however. "To be honest, the overall situation doesn't make it easy for Flo," he said. "The whole club isn't as stable this year as it was last year. It's much harder to slip into the team now.
"If you look at the game against City, they were actually the worse team over the 90 minutes. So it's also difficult for Flo to make a big impact. Ultimately, the overall situation is such that he just needs a little more time, which is normal. You see that with other players who move to the Premier League too."
"We all know what he's capable of and it's perfectly normal for a player of his age to go through a bit of a dip in form," Nagelsmann added. "We can't expect him to perform at the same level for three years straight."
"Instead, we all need to support him a little bit so that he can clear his head here, and then maybe Liverpool could also help him out by scoring some of the chances he creates. That would be one idea, because ... they somehow don't like to shoot the ball in, that's also part of the truth."
Wirtz is part of Nagelsmann's squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Luxembourg and Slovakia. Victories in both matches will secure Germany's place at the 2026 World Cup finals. Will Magee
Robertson admitted Liverpool “would have probably been fortunate to be on level terms” but said: “We think it’s an OK goal. I can’t really comment on it; I think we’ll let other people do that. But for me, it looks as if I duck out the way – I don’t think the keeper is in any eyeline to me. That’s the rules we got told at the start of the season, so it was a little bit of a difficult one.”
The defeat followed wins against Aston Villa and Real Madrid. Robertson said: “We wanted to end a really strong week but it wasn’t meant to be. We were making strides and then obviously getting a knock [at City].”
City’s final goal was scored by Jérémy Doku, who said his breathtaking 20-yard curled strike came after Pep Guardiola had addressed his body position in training.
When Doku was substituted, the manager had a discussion with him in the technical area. The Belgian was asked what was said: “We were talking during the training session sometimes about when I shoot and how my body position is and we were just talking about that now when I score.
So it was a quick joke. It’s difficult to explain: just that I have to put my body above the ball when I shoot the ball so I can put more power, something like that.”
Doku believes there is more to come from him. “I’m 23 years old, I hope this is not my peak level. I hope I can still improve, improve my finishing, improve my movements in the box, improve my decision making, improve on my awareness when I have the ball. This is an unfinished product.”
