In the 11th round of the Premier League, Liverpool lost 0-3 to Manchester City away. After the game, Reds manager Arne Slot was interviewed by the Premier League official.
He said that the 0-2 score in the first half was a reasonable result, but he disagreed with the decision to disallow Van Dijk's goal.
Additionally, Slot also said that Manchester City scored a similar goal against Wolverhampton Wanderers last season, which was ruled valid.
Arne, could you share your perspective on where the problem lies and what aspects have been done well?
First, we have to accept this result because it truly and fairly reflects the gap between the two teams in the first half. They completely dominated the game. We had great difficulty defending against their players who broke through our defense. You would hope to at least go into halftime with a score of 0-1, and even 1-2 would be acceptable. But unfortunately, things didn't turn out that way, and we were already trailing 0-2 in the first half. In this case, it will be even more difficult to turn the situation around in the second half.
You briefly equalized to 1-1 in the first half, but that goal was ruled invalid. What's your take on it?
Similarly, our performance in the first half was indeed poor, and it was a reasonable outcome for the opponent to lead 2-0. However, I disagree with the decision to disallow the 1-1 goal, because in my opinion, it was a valid goal. Immediately after the game, someone showed me the video of Manchester City's goal in their away game against Wolverhampton Wanderers last season, and I think that goal was very similar to our situation today. I was quite surprised because usually after a goal, you look to see if the assistant referee raises the flag, and in this case, I later learned that the assistant referee waited a full 14 seconds before raising the flag. So, yes, these things certainly didn't help us either.
However, once again, Manchester City's 2-0 lead at halftime did fairly reflect the trend of the first half. But a game is not just about fairness; sometimes a set-piece can greatly change the course of a game. And that's exactly what happened later - they scored another goal from a set-piece, and we were 0-2 down at halftime.
Can you get anything positive from the competition? Maybe some personal performances?
Actually, the start of this week has been good for us, as we've secured two victories. Then we faced Manchester City away - that's a tough game for any team, including ourselves. If there's anything positive to say, perhaps it's our performance in the second half. Despite being 0-2 down, and later 0-3, I still saw the team working hard to score and trying to get back into the game. Although we ultimately couldn't achieve that, the team still fought. I saw the team giving their all, even though we were completely dominated in the first half. They were indeed stronger and had a better game plan - perhaps not just "perhaps", they really did do better. As a result, we faced a lot of difficulties in the first half.