Slot Talk: “The Improvement We Have Made Is Visible For Everyone”

What else is there to say? Liverpool failed to take any points from Manchester City this season, and the visitors won at Anfield for the first time in a long time. The Reds did well to keep City away from the goal for the majority of the match, but everything began to unravel after took the lead and our season long weaknesses began to show again. Head coach Arne Slot was not hiding his own feelings in his post match press conference, and his characteristic Dutch directness took center stage once again.

“Yeah, a feeling of anger, a feeling of disappointment, of course. First half, City were the better team on the pitch without creating that many big chances, expect for the one from Haaland in the first minute,” Slot said of the ending to the match.

“But they played easier with the ball. But the improvement we have made since three or four months ago I think was visible for everyone.

“Second half, our standards went up. Standards in terms of intensity. We were pressing them all over the place and that is the biggest improvement we have made in the last three or four months – that the whole team is now able at the highest level against a team that is probably one of the best teams, maybe the best team or one of the best teams in England in ball possession, to do so well off the ball is a big improvement. Fantastic second half, I was expecting more than being 1-0 up but we weren’t and then two goals conceded.“

City equalized through Bernardo Silva in the 84th minute and then were awarded a penalty in stoppage time when Alisson tackled Mateus Nunes late and Erling Haaland converted from the spot. From there it fell into even more chaos as Alisson ran up to help with a corner and left the goal unprotected for too long and Ryan Cherki simply rolled the ball past everyone despite Dominik Szoboszlai’s best efforts to make sure Haaland didn’t get a touch on it. That goal eventually got ruled out and Szoboszlai got sent off for DOGSO for pulling on Haaland’s shirt, causing the Hungarian to miss Wednesday’s match against Sunderland too. While it was, yes, the literal interpretation of the rule, it didn’t exactly benefit anyone more or less than just letting the goal stand, so there is some understandable anger regarding the decision. And since it is a Liverpool game, it was not the only questionable refereeing decision of the day.

“When you asked me, what do you think about the decision, I thought, what do you mean?” the coach said.

“Do you mean the disallowed goal at City, the header from us? Do you mean the penalty they got in the away game against us? Do you mean the clear red card on Mo Salah in the second half? Do you mean the penalty they got in the second half? Do you mean this decision? Only over two games – and the ones that follow Liverpool know how many decisions of this I can come up with in all the other games as well – only in these two games all the big decisions that could have gone in some situation to a 50-50 or some people say left, some people say right…

“I can live with the fact, although I don’t like it, that the referee follows the rulebook and Dominik makes a foul on Haaland in that last situation, which is a clear shirt-pull and he was through to goal so he would have scored. So that’s a red card. And I think the Sunderland manager is really happy that he gives the red card. So that’s the rulebook and you follow the rulebook. And if you follow the rulebook and you have a clear shirt-pull from [Marc] Guehi on Mo Salah, who for eight years is scoring that ball every single time – 100 out of 100 times he scores that goal, a bit exaggerated – and that is not a red card, then there is more of my frustration.

“But I can live with the red card for Dom. If you like football you say, ‘Ah, leave it as it is, it’s a goal, it’s good for them, it’s good for everyone.’ But if you are the Sunderland manager you prefer to see a red card. That’s the rule and follow the rules is all we ask.”

There is also the decision to award a penalty to City for the tackle on Mateus Nunes. There was very little consistency in the match for what was and what wasn’t a foul, and Mohamed Salah himself had been fouled just outside the box, but no penalty had been given in a frustrating decision. These are the kind of actions that make it hard to trust the PGMOL as a whole, and for players to even play the game they get paid to play.

“If it would have happened on the other side I would have asked for a penalty. If I would have got it, I’m not sure,” Slot explained.

“There is contact, we cannot debate that. The ball is out of play, we cannot debate that. When he [Alisson] makes the foul, he [Nunes] can never get the ball anymore. For me, this is a clear decision. But I would prefer to talk about the holding of Mo because that is so obvious that all the attention should go to that.

“This is one where I think but I’m not sure, if the referee doesn’t give a penalty – and he was waiting, waiting, waiting and listening to his linesman, at least that’s what I thought – and then he gave it, then the VAR will never interfere again. But what if he wouldn’t have given it? Would then the VAR have interfered? That’s what we will never know. But my main frustration is in the shirt-pull of Mo Salah at 0-0, clear and open, one-v-one to the goalkeeper.”

All of this happened in the second half, following a fairly uneventful first half where Liverpool did well to keep City from really getting anywhere near the goal, despite not having the majority of the possession. They weren’t able to get to the final third much themselves, though, and while Slot didn’t make any substitutions there were some tactical shifts in the second half that opened up the match for the Reds.

“No, we did not change that much in our off-the-ball work, but I think in the first half you could see moments where we were really close to winning the ball back in a high press, which didn’t happen yet,” the coach continued.

“You also know if you can keep bringing that same energy, both teams maybe get a little bit tired. Off the ball it is not nice to be a bit tired, but on the ball as well you can start making passes that are not as clear and good as they were in the first half with City. Then momentum is coming, fans are behind the team, you get a lot of energy and I think that’s what we saw in the second half: [a] very good physical, mental performance from our players.”

Liverpool next play on Wednesday, traveling to the Stadium of Light to face Sunderland at their home ground for the first time since 2017.