Arne Slot makes blunt admission after Liverpool loss to Man United - 'Constantly the struggle'

Arne Slot admits he is facing up to a real challenge as he attempts to arrest a Liverpool slump that has seen then lose four in a row after Sunday's 2-1 home defeat to Manchester United

Arne Slot admits he's facing one of the toughest challenges of his coaching career turning around Liverpool's form after Manchester United condemned the Premier League champions to a 2-1 loss at Anfield. After Cody Gakpo had cancelled out Bryan Mbuemo's early opener, it was Harry Maguire who headed home in the 84th minute as the Reds were beaten for the fourth game running after reverses at Crystal Palace, Galatasaray and Chelsea prior to the international break.

It's the first time Liverpool have lost four in a row since 2014 and it is the worst sequence of Slot's time on Merseyside, which he concedes he needs to address quickly, starting with Wednesday night's Champions League trip to Eintracht Frankfurt.

"I think as a manager you constantly face challenges," said the Reds head coach. "So when you just start you are a new manager and you need to win games. Then when you do well, you go to a bigger club and people ask how you will do over there, and being the successor of Jurgen Klopp, people say: 'This is the biggest challenge you have ever faced'.

OPINION

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"Now we've lost four times in a row and that is also a challenge, so the life of a football manager is also an ongoing challenge. If you lose games you want to start winning again, so do we lose confidence? I cannot see it yet.

"Because every game we've lost, we were able to create, in the second half, an unbelievable amount of chances.

"So if you look back at the three games we've lost in the Premier League, I don't think if you put all the highlights behind you, you would say it's hardly possible that they lose this game.

"So if we can keep producing what we are doing and maybe do a few things a little bit better, then there is every reason to expect that we will win football games again.

"But I cannot promise you that on Wednesday evening we are able to create eight, nine or 10 open chances.

"I hope so and with the players we have it will lead to us scoring more goals. And there is of course the part that apart from the two goals we conceded, we've conceded maybe two or three more chances."

Slot added: "But this is constantly the struggle we have when we are 1-0 down, then you need to take a bit more of a risk.

"And I am quite positive that we limit the opponents so much to the chances they are creating because we do take a lot of risks.

"At the moment, after 55 minutes, I think we had six or seven offensive players on the pitch and it might, also maybe not be an excuse, but maybe the reason why the structure in defending set-pieces against Palace and now (against United for Maguire's winner) is not as perfect as we usually are.

"Because normally you play for four, five or six defensive-minded players. But at that moment, we are on the pitch with seven or eight offensive-minded players.

"And that is not an excuse because they should do better, we should do better. But maybe it is not a coincidence that exactly in those moments, we concede a set-piece."

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