Arne Slot blames latest Liverpool defeat on injury problems and club's transfer

Arne Slot says it is "not his job to come up with excuses" after Liverpool suffered their 10th defeat of the Premier League season, but highlighted his side’s injury problems, fixture pile-up and the players the club has sold.

Danny Welbeck's double earned Brighton a 2-1 victory and inflicted another loss on Slot's side at the Amex Stadium on Saturday, just days after the Reds delivered their "best performance of the season" against Galatasaray in the Champions League.

Hugo Ekitike was forced off with a dead leg in eighth minute on the south coast, adding to Liverpool's injury problems with Mo Salah and Alisson sidelined having started the midweek tie.

Saturday's defeat saw Liverpool miss the opportunity to climb above Aston Villa into fourth place.

Slot admitted Brighton deserved to win but Liverpool's position was not good enough "no matter how many excuses I can come up with".

"What went wrong started off with the lead-up to this game, as so many times this season when we played a very good game and we thought we could bring that level to the first game or even better," he said.

"We had Mo Salah injured, we had Alisson injured, and after two minutes Hugo Ekitike out. That has happened so many times to us this season and again now. And what happened a lot this season is also that the first chance of the other team immediately went in.

"But Brighton deserved to win if you look at the second half, because in the first half I think it was an equal game. But in the second half Brighton were the better team on the pitch and they deserved to win.

"Brighton away, that's a difficult game for any team, especially if you miss out on a few very influential players," said Slot.

"Of course now, looking at the league table, this loss hurts a lot and it should hurt us a lot.

"But the main problem we are in this position (is) because we dropped points at Wolves in the last minute with a deflected shot (and then) a week ago (against Tottenham) - not a week ago, because we had to play on Sunday, not on Saturday, and then on Wednesday and Saturday, not as all the other Champions League teams.

"The goal last week in the 90th minute is a bigger problem than losing away at Brighton."

Slot said Ekitike could "play tomorrow if he needed to", but blamed his injury on Liverpool's quick turnaround following the midweek fixture.

He said: "If you face a team that has only had 62 hours of rest, the first thing you do is make it an intense game, play the first duels, play tough duels. Nothing wrong with the duels, by the way, but unfortunately, it was a collision and that led to Hugo going out.

"They were the better team and created more chances than us. Everything I say about this, people will see this as excuses and I never like to use excuses after the game."

When it was put to Slot that there may be little sympathy for his side after the club spent £450m in the summer, he pointed to the players the club had sold.

"No, I have complete sympathy with that for all the people who are saying this, because no one in England is used to the fact that there are also clubs that are selling players," he said.

"Usually in England, when a club is spending £450m, which we did, that's adding to the already great team you have, but this club has a different model and no one wants to see and understand this. That I can also understand, because fans of other teams or certain pundits don't want to tell you that we've sold for £300m.

"Now, if the £150m player is never available, that's already one thing. If Giovanni Leoni has never been available because of his injury, that's already the second thing. So now we're already going underneath what we've sold.

"Jeremy Frimpong is recently more and more available. And Giorgi Mamardashvili was one of the other signings for £450m. He's the second goalkeeper.

"It makes complete sense if you win the league last season and you spent £150m, not £450m, that expectations are high. And those expectations were high for the pundits, for the media, for me, for the fans. But at our club, we're also looking at the situation and the challenge we had during this season.

"And then we might be a bit more realistic why this season has gone, why it has gone. But still it's not good enough. No matter how many excuses I can come up with, it's still not good enough, the position."