Arne Slot's Liverpool tenure had been plain sailing until late September rolled around, with the Dutchman the picture of cool as he guided the Reds to the Premier League title in his first season at the helm, making the job look easy after stepping into the very large shoes vacated by Jurgen Klopp in 2024. The new campaign had started well enough, albeit while a number of late goals might have papered over the cracks, but things feel different now.
Off the back of consecutive defeats to Crystal Palace, Galatasaray and Chelsea, Sunday's damaging home reverse at the hands of Manchester United – the Red Devils' first victory at Anfield in – has seemingly pushed Slot closer to the end of his tether than we have seen him before.
Of course, no-one likes losing to a fierce rival – especially not at home – but Slot's reaction smacked of a head coach looking for excuses, rather than taking accountability; when he faced the cameras in the tunnel after full-time he had the opportunity to shoulder some blame and address what exactly is going wrong, but instead he aimed repeated digs at United and their tactics under Ruben Amorim.
While he maintained his composed exterior, speaking with a blank expression and without raising his voice, there was something undeniably Klopp-esque about Slot's quiet outburst, with his predecessor a notoriously sore loser during his time in the Anfield dugout. However, when the going got tough, the German tactician knew when to take responsibility – something Slot must learn as Liverpool look to avoid slipping into full-blown crisis mode.
Getty Images SportFinally loses his cool
Slot has maintained his cool, calm demeanour throughout his Liverpool tenure, but Sunday's damaging defeat to their fierce rivals from Manchester was clearly the biggest test of his patience so far. When he emerged for his post-match media duties the relaxed facade remained, but his carefully-chosen words belied his composure.
In the brief time between Harry Maguire's 84th-minute winner and the end of his team talk in the belly of the Reds' famed home ground, Slot had seemingly established a line of defence and gone over it in his head so that he had it down to a tee in time to face the cameras after a fourth defeat in a row.
Rather than take accountability himself or point the finger at his players in any serious way, the Dutchman instead decided to lace his analysis with barbs aimed at United and the tactics deployed by his counterpart Amorim – repeating the same line about 'long balls' and a 'low block' almost verbatim to , the and in his post-match press conference. It's a veiled criticism he levelled at Amorim's side after a 2-2 draw in January, too.
Advertisement'long balls' and 'low block'
Slott said on BBC's Match of the Day:
"It's always difficult playing against a team that plays a low block and long balls. It's even more difficult when you concede a goal in the opening minutes with a man lying on the ground. If you'd told me before the game that we were going to create that many chances against a team that plays a low block and long balls, you wouldn't think we'd lose. But that's what happened."
He repeated this assertion in his press conference:
"When you play United, with all their talented players, and they're playing a low block at our home and playing long balls, the last thing you want is to go behind because it gives them even more confidence. If you'd told me that United were playing that style and we were going to go behind after creating eight or 10 chances, I would have said 'no way,' but that's what happened."
Ironically, the actual stats don't reflect his words. Liverpool recorded 27 long balls, while United recorded 18. Although the length of time the two teams had the ball was significantly different, Liverpool used more long balls numerically. United simply used them more efficiently, putting the home team under pressure.
AFPIn the firing line
At a time when Liverpool need to be looking inwardly to work out exactly what is going wrong and how they can haul themselves out of this rut, Slot's comments have only served to increase the outside noise and media scrutiny, with many rival fans and pundits alike labelling their head coach 'bitter' and a 'sore loser'.
He had provoked ridicule even before kick-off on Sunday with a complaint that was perhaps a reflection that the pressure of Liverpool's blip is starting to get to him, as he bizarrely pointed out that Amorim had decided to change his tactics and bench Benjamin Sesko despite his recent goal-scoring form.
"We've seen Sesko play the last three, four, five or six times, but they go to Liverpool they change the line-up," he said. "That's not the first where we've faced a team and they've done that."
That drew a brutal response from rival supporters, who branded Slot "f*cking pathetic" for seemingly being irked that United didn't set up in the way that he had anticipated, creating an excuse before the game had even begun.
Getty Images SportTime to take accountability
To his credit, Slot did attribute a slither of blame for the defeat to his players and, by proxy, himself – albeit he wasn't exactly scathing. Questioning the referee's failure to stop play in the build-up to United's early opener, with Alexis Mac Allister suffering a head injury (caused by Virgil van Dijk) mere seconds before Bryan Mbeumo found the back of the net, also smacked of desperation.
"The second thing that went wrong is that from all the chances we got, we only scored one goal," he 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.
"I think the main thing we should do now, I should do now, is not complain, blame or do these kind of things. We could have done much better after Macca (Mac Allister) was on the floor, we should have done better. But the healthcare of a player is something that is important and if a player needs to have four stitches, you would hope that everybody understands that he needs immediate treatment. But it didn't happen.
"But, again, we could have done better, so that's not the reason why we lost this game today – the reason is because we missed far too many chances to win a game of football."
Slot isn't necessarily wrong about those missed opportunities, but after a fourth defeat in a row for Liverpool – the first time they been on such a losing streak in over a decade – the Dutchman surely needs to delve deeper into their problems and begin to shoulder some of the blame for these issues himself.
Contrastingly, Klopp was always willing to take responsibility during downturns in form across his glittering tenure, including in his final season, saying after the Merseyside derby defeat to Everton in April 2024 as Liverpool's title challenge crumbled: "You saw the game. It wasn’t the first [poor] one but it was the worst one. I see two teams [Arsenal and Manchester City] who play really positive football and go for it. We can do that but we don't in this moment. Who can I make responsible for that? It's my job until the last day to make sure the boys feel that."
There is certainly some more self-reflection to be done for Slot.