Liverpool manager Arne Slot saw his side lose just four Premier League matches on their way to last season’s title in what was a marvelous first season in charge at Anfield.
Now he’s seen his side lose four-straight league games, as the Reds fell 3-2 to Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday.
MORE — Brentford vs Liverpool recap, video highlights
The Reds trailed 2-0 and 3-1 in the game, getting a first-half stoppage time goal from Milos Kerkez and an 89th minute goal from Mohamed Salah in London.
Liverpool also conceded a controversial penalty when a foul from Virgil van Dijk was upgraded to a penalty that became Brentford’s third goal. All of the above was discussed when Slot met with a microphone after the game on Saturday.
Arne Slot reaction — Liverpool boss speaks as Premier League losing skid hits four
Thoughts on the game? “Another time disappointing. Disappointing result and performance today as well. Another time conceding in five minutes. So, yeah.”
Another game without a clean sheet: “Conceding three goals is far too much if you want to win a game of football. The first one is a set piece, if you concede goals it’s something you might expect. Second goal counter attacks something they are very good at it, not that we defended it well at all. In the second half, a penalty made it hardly impossible to get a result.”
Thoughts on the penalty? “Difficult, the referee gave a free kick. I’m not sure if he would’ve given a penalty for that but then the VAR says it’s inside, so it’s overturned for a penalty. I don’t think the referee was planning to give a penalty but then it turned out to be inside.
Mohamed Salah ends his open play goal drought in the PL: “Always positive that he scores a goal. Good moment for Dominik Szoboszlai as well who won the ball out of the high press.”
How do you react to this losing run: “What I have to do is look at what we do wrong and what we do well. Today I do have a clear idea of what we have to improve. That’s not been the situation in other games we have lost, it’s been some different each time. Today we didn’t do the basics well. That was the main thing that we have to improve looking at this game.”
Virgil van Dijk reaction — On losing streak, failing to keep clean sheets, controversial penalty
How are you feeling? “Disappointed for losing here. Obviously we knew what the strengths were and what they’d try to do. The first goal is something we knew. The second goal, the penalty — listen it was just a very disappointing night overall. It’s tough to take but it’s reality.”
“It’s the reality that we lost today. That’s the only thing. We have a next game Wednesday against an opponent that’s already made our life difficult this season. We have to turn our mind quickly because they come here trying to give us more pain. This was not a nice evening to have.”
Thoughts on the penalty? “The referee said the ball was on the line but then he put the spot two meters outside the box so I didn’t know what was going on. In the end obviously he gives it and that’s not great.”
Nine-straight games without a clean sheet. What’s wrong? “It’s difficult to say. The fact is that we didn’t keep a clean sheet for nine games. It’s easy to blame a particular person but it’s a collective. We have to all look in the mirror. I’m sure we will get out of this but we don’t get out of it by talking. We’ll try to improve. It’s not that we’re doing nothing in training or behind the scenes but it’s tough at the moment. We need each other. We need to support. We need the people who celebrated with us last season to be with us now even more. I’m very confident we’ll get out of this offensively and defensively.”
