Arne Slot has absolved Liverpool’s players of any blame following their listless defeat by Manchester City, insisting instead that his tactics were at fault.
The Reds saw their recent mini-resurgence following back-to-back wins over Aston Villa and Real Madrid halted emphatically at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday, where goals from Erling Haaland, Nico Gonzalez and man-of-the-match Jeremy Doku secured a statement 3-0 victory for City in what was Pep Guardiola’s 1,000th game as a manager.
The result saw City - who won easily despite Haaland missing an early penalty - jump above Chelsea into second place in the Premier League table, closing the gap on Arsenal to four points after 11 games after the leaders were held to a dramatic 2-2 draw by surprise package Sunderland 24 hours earlier.
It also dealt another major early blow to Liverpool’s hopes of retaining their top-flight title as they were left fuming after Virgil van Dijk’s controversially disallowed goal that would have seen them equalise, leaving them eighth and eight points off the title pace already.
It was also the first time that Liverpool had lost a fourth successive away league game since 2012, with Slot insisting that the game plan was the main issue and not the effort of his players.
“It’s easy for players to win their duels if the game plan and the tactics are working and I think that’s what it did against Villa and what it did against Madrid,” he said. “But we struggled now a lot with them bringing so many players into the centre of the pitch and it was difficult then for some of our players to make the right decisions.
“So I think it wasn’t about my players not wanting to make the duel, they had to run a lot because they [City] were so much better on the ball than us [and] they were a few times then too late.
“I would first and foremost then always look to the game plan of us and them and not blame my players at all because in the second half when we were doing better I think you could also see that they were able to win much more duels, and then we were more than a few times able to win the ball – which did not result in a goal from us, but in that period of time in the second half I think we definitely deserved a goal.”
Slot was also left unhappy at the decision following a VAR review to rule out Van Dijk’s first-half header from a corner due to an offside Andy Robertson having been deemed to be distracting City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.
“I think it is obvious and clear the wrong decision has been made,” the Dutchman told Sky Sports.
“He (Robertson) didn’t interfere at all with what the goalkeeper can do. Immediately after the game someone showed me a goal the same referee allowed for City against Wolves last season.”
