Liverpool manager Arne Slot attended the post-match press conference following the 1-1 draw with Sunderland.
We’ve seen Federico Chiesa be an excellent substitute in the Champions League. I imagine you’re grateful for his impressive defensive performance in the final stages of the game.
Yes, I think in the last few minutes of the game, we came close to making it 2-1 because we had several set pieces near their penalty area, and they couldn’t get out of that situation.
But then, during a set-piece attack, when we launched a second-phase attack, we played the ball across, their goalkeeper caught it, and I looked up to see one of their players completely unmarked near the halfway line.
Fortunately, Federico Chiesa could have thought, “This isn’t my problem, I’m too far away,” but he kept sprinting. Alisson pulled him out to the flank, and Chiesa managed to make a goal-line clearance. I think that’s at least what we deserved tonight, and what he deserved.
In terms of the overall performance, are you satisfied with the team’s display, or disappointed with Sunderland’s goal?
A bit of both. Before the game, I knew that against Sunderland, from their 14th game, they’ve only conceded more than one goal in four matches, and in those four games, they only conceded two.
So, this is a tough team to break down and create chances against because they either press very aggressively high up or have 11 players – 10 outfield players and a goalkeeper – defending the penalty area desperately, which is why it’s so hard to create opportunities.
So from that perspective, even though I knew how difficult it would be to create chances against them, I still wish we could have done better. However, I think we barely conceded any chances.
Their first real chance – I don’t count the shot that hit the crossbar because that wasn’t even a chance – but their first truly threatening attack came from a set piece that hit the post.
In my opinion, their goal wasn’t even a chance. If that’s a chance, then we had about 20 chances tonight. But unfortunately, a deflection led to us going 0-1 down.
In recent games, we’ve found it very difficult to equalize, even though we’ve had opportunities each time. Today, we equalized a bit by luck because that was also a deflected goal.
For me, it’s different because that was a shot from 8, 9, 10 yards out, so that’s at least a real chance, whereas a shot from 20 yards isn’t. That’s a chance, one chance, but not a real chance. So it’s a bit of both.
In some games, opponents grow in confidence after the start of the second half. Do you think this is largely dependent on winning at Anfield? Do you think Anfield’s aura is fading?
No, Anfield definitely isn’t. But obviously, teams now come to play us thinking they can win. It’s not just “thinking” because we’ve shown that this season.
Even in the games we’ve won, I think we’ve boosted other teams’ confidence, making them think, “Well, maybe there’s a chance.” But the wins at the start of the season weren’t easy either.
I don’t fully agree with you that “they got better as the game went on” because I think there was only one team in possession and only one team active in the second half. However, yes, if they get a free kick or a goal kick, they can play long balls into our half, meaning we have to defend three or four free kicks, three throw-ins, and one corner.
Of course, that’s a threat for them because they’ve proven this season that they’re very dangerous from set pieces. Luckily for us, we didn’t concede from a set piece. Maybe that’s why we got at least one point.
Despite being thoroughly prepared for them and seeing Sunderland’s success, did anything they do surprise you?
No, they didn’t do anything that surprised me. Not at all. As I said, we knew they could press high and set up a 11-man defensive shape around the penalty area – many Premier League teams do that.
That’s the basic defensive requirement because the league is so competitive now that it’s hard not to defend with 11 players.
Based on your goalscoring record this season, where do you prefer to drop back to when defending against this type of team?
I think first of all, when the opposition has the ball 30 or 35 yards from goal, it’s wiser to block spaces because if you push up as a center-back or in other positions, they’ll try to exploit those spaces.
So first, block the spaces, but at some point, you have to push back, which I think Virgil van Dijk did. We were unlucky to concede from a deflection – I’ve seen many deflections, and one of them led to a goal.
But yes, we were unlucky, and we conceded from one of the few chances they had.
You said you wanted to make a change. I apologize if I’m covering most of this, but why did you choose to substitute off Cody Gakpo?
In my opinion, Cody Gakpo struggled to gain an advantage in one-on-one situations. As I said, they press high and often defend deep. If you want to have a chance to score, the way to do it is simple: you need moments of brilliance from players, or you need a set-piece opportunity.
I felt that Cody found it hard to get such opportunities in the first half because he struggled to outmuscle Sunderland’s center-backs in one-on-one duels.
So I wanted to play Dominik Szoboszlai on the right in the first half to make the defense more solid and not concede as many goals as we have in recent weeks. So I moved Mohamed Salah to the right and let Florian Wirtz play on the left. As I said, we drew, but it was hard to create those magical moments throughout the game.
We used set-piece opportunities, and unfortunately, we came close to scoring at one point – I remember Alexis Mac Allister’s set piece in the first half hit the post. In short, we created quite a few chances, especially towards the end of the second half, but ultimately couldn’t find the winner.
