Arne Slot: Stopping Liverpool’s worst run in 11 years is big challenge

Liverpool manager acknowledged he faces a major challenge amid the club's worst run since 2014. Reflecting on the 1-2 home defeat to Manchester United, he stated the team “lacked enough cutting edge.”

Despite suffering four consecutive defeats across all competitions, Slot insisted the team has not lost confidence. At Anfield, Harry Maguire's late goal secured victory for Manchester United, leaving the defending champions now four points behind Premier League leaders Arsenal.

“As a coach, you're always facing challenges,” Slot remarked. “When you start out, you need to win games; later, when you move to bigger clubs, people ask if you can succeed there. When I took over from Jürgen Klopp, they said, ‘This is the biggest challenge of your career.’ Now we've lost four in a row, and that's another challenge. A coach's life is always about facing challenges.”

He continued:

"Of course you want to win again after a defeat, but I don't see us lacking confidence. Because in every game we lost, we created numerous chances in the second half. Look at our last three Premier League defeats—if you only watch the highlights, you'd hardly believe we lost."

Slot added: "As long as we keep playing like this and make slight improvements in certain details, there's every reason to believe we'll win again. However, I can't guarantee we'll create eight, nine, or even ten chances like we did before on Wednesday night (in the Champions League)."

The match Slot referred to is Liverpool's Champions League away fixture against Eintracht Frankfurt on Wednesday. However, midfielder Gravenberch is likely to miss the game due to an ankle sprain.

At Manchester United, the team under manager Amolin secured its first consecutive Premier League wins, now just two points behind the top four. When asked by reporters about the possibility of returning to the Champions League, Amolin declined to discuss standings, instead urging players to focus on the next three matches—against Brighton, Nottingham Forest, and Tottenham Hotspur.

“What we need to do is try to win these three games, not think about whether we can finish fourth or sixth,” said Amorim. “We've said before that we want to get back into European competition, and that hasn't changed. We're still the same team we were 90 minutes ago.”

The manager, who has won just 11 of his 35 Premier League games in charge of United, also paid tribute to the fans' support: "This kind of support isn't common. We've been through many difficult moments, but the fans have always stood by us. Despite many saying I wouldn't last past Christmas, they kept backing me. We made them suffer against Grimsby and Brentford, and today they saw a different team."

Since Slot took charge, he has signed several players, including Wirtz for £116 million, but Wirtz has yet to score or assist. The team's lack of efficiency, frequent injuries, and integration issues have plunged Liverpool into its worst slump in 11 years.

Nevertheless, Slot emphasized: “We won't panic. The key is to keep believing in the process. The team's performances show we still have the ability to win.”