Liverpool Will Not Alter Attacking Style In the Face of Poor Run of Form, Insists Slot
The Dutch manager has revealed that the club's hierarchy share his views regarding the poor performance streak and he will not abandon their offensive approach in pursuit of a improvement. The tactician acknowledged that six defeats in seven games was unacceptable ahead of the weekend fixture with Villa.
Increasing Scrutiny Throughout Challenging Phase
The manager acknowledged the scrutiny was intense before his makeshift team suffered Carabao Cup elimination against their Premier League rivals. However, he insisted that this urgency to stop the losing streak is not coming from the team's proprietors or executive leadership following a substantial investment of approximately £450 million.
"Our views align," commented the manager, whose side will meet Los Blancos in the continental tournament and play against Pep Guardiola's side in the English top flight.
Player Depth Stays Unquestioned
The coach is convinced his team "have an unbelievable squad if they are fully healthy and completely set for the programme we are facing". He said that the summer investment in footballers like Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak, who is expected to be sidelined again against Villa through injury, had left the club "in an excellent position for the immediate prospects and the distant prospects".
Team Cohesion Issues
When pressed on why his team were struggling to integrate, he answered: "That's not particularly helpful. 'What's causing this?' I offer insights and people say I'm coming up with excuses. I can identify several explanations why we are underperforming or experiencing losses as we do but, as I always emphasize, there are never enough excuses to have a run of form as we had now."
- Regardless of whether I could identify 200 excuses
- As Liverpool manager you should not suffer defeats
- The reality is six losses from seven matches
Defensive Numbers
Only the Lancashire club (21) have allowed more significant openings from open play this season than the Merseysiders (nineteen). The league leaders, Arsenal, have allowed just two. Yet Liverpool's coach rejects the champions have been too open and claims there is no reason to sacrifice his attacking principles for a defensive approach after ten fixtures without a goalless performance.
"In my view we're not allowing many opportunities so I find no basis to change our playing style completely but we need to do better in preventing goals," he stated.
Recent Examples
"Against Manchester United, how many opportunities did we allow? Against Eintracht Frankfurt when we were 3-1 up, we hardly conceded a shot on target. In all the games we have competed in we haven't given up a numerous openings. Not at all. We do concede a bit more than the previous campaign but that has to do with us being 1-0 down so you take a bit more risk. But typically I don't think that our challenge is that we allow too many opportunities. Our issue is we don't score the opportunities we generate."