LONDON — Coach Arne Slot vowed to “keep fighting”, saying his conversations with Liverpool’s owners have not changed despite his team’s deep slump.
The Premier League champions were hammered 4-1 at Anfield by PSV Eindhoven in the UEFA Champions League Wednesday – their ninth defeat in their past 12 matches in all competitions. The stands emptied as frustrated fans quit the ground in droves in the latter stages of the match.
It is the worst run of form for the 20-time English champions in more than 70 years.
Now Liverpool faces a trip to rejuvenated West Ham on Sunday, desperate to improve on their position of 12th place in the Premier League table.
Slot, who led Liverpool to the Premier League title last season in his first campaign in charge, said in the aftermath of Wednesday’s defeat he was confident his job was safe.
He held a press conference, previewing Sunday’s game at West Ham, who look a different side under new manager Nuno Espirito Santo.
The Liverpool boss was asked at the start of the press conference whether he has spoken to the club’s owners since the PSV game.
“We’ve had the same conversations since I’ve been here,” he said according to AFP.
“We fight on. And we try to improve, that’s what we all try. But the conversations have been the same as they’ve been for the past one and a half years.”
The Dutchman admitted Liverpool’s standards had slipped but insisted he did not feel let down by his players.
“We think we can play better than we do,” he said. “But last season, when we did really well, there was a lot of focus on certain individuals and I always said it should be about the team, and the team makes the individuals look very good.
“And if the opposite is happening, we should also look at the team and not at the individuals.”
Former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard added to the pressure on Slot with a damning verdict on their plight following the PSV loss – their second in five Champions league matches.
“With each defeat it gets closer to being a crisis,” Gerrard told TNT Sports.
“There is no excuses for a performance like that at this football club. You cannot deny the team is struggling massively.”
But Slot said it was not easy to come up with answers, admitting that his sleep was “not the best” after Wednesday’s damaging defeat.
He said his team were failing to make the most of their chances while their mistakes were routinely being punished.
“We get knock after knock after knock, which is hard,” he said. “That’s why I keep saying that, especially when that happens, we have to keep fighting.
“And that’s what we’ve done so well last season, what this club is about for so many years. And that’s what we expect.”
Slot said he expected Alisson Becker to be available to face West Ham after the goalkeeper missed the PSV match with illness and that Florian Wirtz could be back in training on Saturday.
Slot must find a way to arrest the team’s slide even as the pressure mounts on him, former skipper Steven Gerrard said.
The humbling defeat was Liverpool’s ninth in their last 12 games in all competitions, their worst 12-game stretch since the 1953-54 season and the third successive game in which they have lost by three goals.
