Slot: Liverpool must be 'close to perfection' to secure Champions League spot

Arne Slot has insisted that his Liverpool team must be "close to perfection" in their pursuit of Champions League football this season. 

Liverpool make the trip to the Stadium of Light to face Sunderland on Wednesday fresh from their dramatic defeat to Manchester City last time out. 

Erling Haaland's late penalty helped the Citizens achieve a league double over Liverpool for the first time since 1936-37, while delivering another blow to the Reds' campaign. 

Slot's side are sixth in the Premier League heading into MD26, five points behind Manchester United in fourth and four further adrift of fifth-placed Chelsea in the table. 

Liverpool are assigned a 21.7% chance of finishing in the top four, with Aston Villa (70.2%), United (35.1%) and Chelsea (48.2%) all better fancied in the Opta supercomputers data-led simulations of the 2025-26 season. 

"[We have to be] close to perfection because of the points we are behind," Slot told reporters.

"We also know it is different when you are four points behind a team that is 18th or 19th in the league, because they usually don't pick up as many points as the number three, four or five picks up.

"So to close the gap to numbers three, four and five, that means you have to win a lot and that is not what we have done a lot this season, so that is why that has to be better and that is why we have to be close to perfection.

"Margins are indeed very small because seven minutes before the end we were five points behind City and five minutes later we were 11 points behind."

After their late defeat to City, Liverpool have now conceded four 90th-minute winners in league matches this season.

It is already the joint-most by a team in a single Premier League campaign, after Watford in 2017-18, West Ham in 2021-22, Watford in 2021-22, and Southampton in 2024-25.

In addition, they lost a Premier League game at Anfield in which they scored the opening goal for the first time since April 2017 (2-1 defeat v Crystal Palace).

Between those two matches, the Reds were unbeaten in 109 home league games when scoring the opening goal (W98 D11).

And they travel to face a Sunderland side who are unbeaten in all 12 of their Premier League home games this season (W7 D5).

It's the longest run by a promoted side from the start of a top-flight season since 1977-78, when Nottingham Forest remained unbeaten in all 21 en route to winning the league. 

And having won their first two away league games this season, Liverpool have since won just two of their last 10 on the road (D3 L5).

They have also conceded 21 goals away from home this term, more than bottom side Wolves (20), with Slot conceding his team are falling way below expectations this season.

"A draw feels like a loss at this club. That's definitely not easy for players as well, because they know what the standards of Liverpool mean, and we are not performing to the standards of Liverpool at the moment, and they feel that disappointment," Slot added.

"Mainly because we are so close every single game. Every game it feels as though we are going to win it but it doesn't happen.

"And that is probably more difficult than when you play a game and throughout the whole game you feel like the other team is better, and you're just not good enough.

"But that's not what they feel. They feel performance wise that they can compete with any other team in any league in the world.

"But the reality is that we don't perform to Liverpool standards."