A dejected Liverpool boss Arne Slot admitted the mood is bleak at Anfield after his team’s shocking slump continued with a 4-1 throttling by PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League on Wednesday.
The pressure on Slot was cranked up a notch after a humbling defeat that was the Reds’ ninth in their last 12 games across all competitions, their worst 12-game stretch since the 1953-54 season, when Winston Churchill was the UK’s Prime Minister.
“The emotions are very negative and disappointing,” Slot said. “I was also hoping and expecting a better performance, because the performance was far from what we are used to, even if we’re losing, our performances have been better.”
The numbers during the Reds’ shambolic run have been shocking. They have lost their last three games across all competitions by three goals, and their home fortress is crumbling, with the team — and disgruntled fans tasting defeat at Anfield already more times than they did all of last season.
“Even when we don’t play well, (we are) able to score two goals and create more chances,” Slot said. “But you cannot even compete because we simply concede too many goals.”
The Premier League champions’ troublesome start comes despite the club spending an unprecedented 446 million pounds ($599 million) in the summer transfer window, bolstering their squad with the arrivals of British-record signing Alexander Isak, among others.
But Isak, who was a late substitute against PSV, has been all but absent on the pitch in the games he has played since joining from Newcastle United.
Plus Liverpool talisman Mohamed Salah has been a shell of the player who was the Premier League’s top scorer last season.
“It’s hard because I’m playing for the team I support,” Liverpool midfielder Curtis Jones told RTE Sports. “I’m a fan, and I’ve seen this club all my life. In a long, long time, I haven’t experienced a Liverpool team going through a period like this with results like these.
“But at the end of the day, we still have that badge on our chest,” Jones added. “And until that badge is gone, we’re always going to fight. We’re going to try and get this team back to where it needs to be, show everyone again what this club is about and why people call it the best team in the world.”- Reuters
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