Arne Slot insists it's “not an excuse”

Liverpool have conceded five set-piece goals from eight Premier League games this season, and Arne Slot has sought to explain the risk that is creating the vulnerabilities.

Euphoric late winners defined the start of Liverpool’s title defence, but in each of their last three league games they have lost after conceding from minute 84 onwards.

Against Man United, Harry Maguire’s winner came from the second phase of a set-piece while Liverpool had six offensive-minded players on the pitch, plus a midfielder at right-back.

Mo Salah, Cody Gakpo, Hugo Ekitike, Florian Wirtz and Federico Chiesa were on the pitch as Slot rolled the dice, but the risk, again, had damning repercussions in defence.

Unprompted, Slot explained to reporters in his press conference that being 1-0 down has forced him to take more risks, which is leaving him with fewer defensive-minded players.

“Then there’s, of course, the part no one asked about but I can tell you,” he started. “Apart from the two goals we conceded, we have conceded maybe two or three more chances.

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“But this is the struggle we are constantly having being 1-0 down, then you need to take a bit more risk. And then I am even quite positive that we limit the opponent so much to the chances they are creating.

“Because we do take a lot of risk in the moment. After 55 minutes, I think we had six or seven offensive players on the pitch.

“That might also, not be an excuse, but be the reason why the structure in defending a set-piece against Palace and now was not as perfect as we usually are.

“Normally you play with four, five, six defensive-minded players, but at that moment we are on the pitch with seven or eight offensive-minded players.

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“That’s not an excuse because they should do better, we should do better, but maybe it’s not a coincidence that exactly in those moments of time we concede a set-piece.”

He also said, “It’s almost impossible to win a big game of football…with a negative set-piece balance. We conceded another one and that led to us losing the game.”

It is another nod to the lack of structure and control Liverpool possesses, irrespective of who is on the pitch, as the constant need to take risks points to bigger issues being at play.

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