Liverpool boss Arne Slot mentioned folks would “make stories” out of the explanations for his facet’s 3-2 defeat at Fulham however performed down the defensive errors of their first Premier League loss since September.
Three Fulham objectives in 14 first-half minutes proved to be a hill too exhausting to climb for Slot’s males, who noticed a 26-game unbeaten league run resulted in west London owing largely to their very own defensive errors.
They’d briefly led at Craven Cottage earlier than errors from Curtis Jones, Andrew Robertson and Virgil van Dijk respectively performed their half in Fulham’s rapid-fire turnaround earlier than the break.
That put Liverpool two objectives down for the primary time since their Merseyside derby defeat to Everton in April final yr, and, regardless of Luis Diaz’s good end 18 minutes from the tip, they might not drive an equaliser.
Slot pointed to Liverpool’s defensive consistency – conceding solely 27 objectives in 30 video games previous to this defeat – when requested whether or not strain or complacency was affecting his facet, and denied the consequence and efficiency was any greater than a foul day on the workplace.
“There’s always a lot of attention around Liverpool,” he informed Sky Sports activities. “That does not begin now, that is been there the entire season.
“In fact, folks need to make tales however for me it is all about taking part in Fulham. They are a good crew, and for those who then make three errors it will be very troublesome to win the sport towards them.
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Premier League highlights of the match between Fulham and Liverpool
“In general, we are not making many of these errors, let alone three in one game. Today, we also had (Ibrahima) Konate losing the ball too.
“The second half was so significantly better than the primary, but it surely’s exhausting to win a sport of soccer at this stage for those who concede three objectives like this.
“You could feel that we were creating a lot of chances, we’ve had a few but unfortunately we lacked time in the end to score the third goal. That has to do with us conceding three goals, because to score three in an away game is very hard especially against a good team like Fulham.”
Slot goals shot at Man Metropolis: We have labored tougher for this place
Slot in contrast Liverpool to the Man Metropolis facet who received 4 consecutive Premier League titles by suggesting his crew had wanted to work tougher to get into the place they discover themselves in, with an 11-point lead on the prime of the desk with seven video games remaining.
“There’s no reason for us to be complacent,” he mentioned. “We’re not first because we win every game by a margin of three or four goals.
“I feel everybody that has seen our video games, it takes us a lot effort, a lot exhausting work to win video games of soccer, mixed with high quality, after all.
“But the team that won the league the last four seasons [Man City] were already 3-0 up at half-time almost every single game they played.
“And that is not the way in which it’s for us. So we’re totally conscious of the truth that we’ve got to compete for seven extra video games.
“We saw it on Wednesday against Everton. It was a close call. Today was a close call. Many times we’ve been on the right side. Today we were on the wrong side, mainly because of the errors we made.”
‘There’ll at all times be moments when Van Dijk will endure’
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Virgil van Dijk was outwitted by Rodrigo Muniz within the build-up to Fulham’s third
Van Dijk had one other troublesome afternoon at Craven Cottage after struggling towards Beto on Wednesday night time when the Everton ahead got here shut with plenty of possibilities in Everton’s 1-0 defeat at Anfield.
The usually dependable Dutchman was largely culpable for Fulham’s third objective, misjudging a excessive ball and permitting Rodrigo Muniz to have a transparent run on objective earlier than firing residence.
“I mainly give credit to other players as well,” mentioned Slot when requested about his captain’s type. “Van Dijk is not the first player to find it difficult to defend against Beto. And the one that played here today, you have to give credit to him also.
“I nonetheless see lots of issues that Virgil does very well, however for those who play 50-60 video games a season, there can be moments, even for him, the place you possibly can have finished higher.”
