Arne Slot dismisses Liverpool theory and explains what was 'different' about Fulham loss

Arne Slot was disappointed with his players' defensive showings against Fulham.

Arne Slot has denied accusations that his Liverpool team got complacent as they lost 3-2 at Fulham at Craven Cottage on Sunday.

The Reds suffered their second defeat of the campaign after a poor first half saw them concede three times

After Alexis Mac Allister's strike had given the visitors the lead, Marco Silva's men responded through Ryan Sessegnon, Alex Iwobi and Rodrigo Muniz

Slot:

“No, there's no reason for us to be complacent,"

"We're not No.1 in the league because we win every game by a margin of three or four goals.

“It takes us so much effort, so much hard work combined with quality for us to win games.

"The team that won the league for the past four seasons was already 3-0 at half time in almost every game they played. That's not the way it is for us.

“We are fully aware of the fact we need to compete for seven more games. On Wednesday when we played Everton, it was a close call. Today was a close call.”

“Many times we've been on the right side, today we were on the wrong side mainly because of the errors we played.

“I don’t think the errors we made were anything to do with tired. I can see it now that everyone looks back and says: ‘wow, that first half was a disaster.’

“But if you look back, you will see some good moments as well because there were some good moments as well.

“Even at 1-1, I looked and thought: ‘OK, it’s not our best game but we’re on control.’ But then all of a sudden I blinked my eyes and we were 3-1 down."

Slot added: "It wasn't 45 minutes of disaster but the errors we made are something we're not used to. That's different from playing poorly in my opinion.

"Of course it disappoints me, the players and the fans. The reason we're in the position we are is that we haven't made many mistakes.

"Players try to make up for them. That's what we tried to do for their second goal but unfortunately rather than the ball behind deflected behind it went in the goal.

"This can happen, especially when you play a good team like Fulham. They had the quality to punish us. In the second half we created so many chances we could have made up for it but we lacked time.

"In the last 2o to 25 minutes it was clear to everyone that we could have scored a third goal. That's why actual playing time wasn't the most in those final 25 minutes.

“The message [to the players] was mainly that they showed great character in the second half but not for the first time this season we had a difficult first half, not for the first time this season.

“Normally we are able to make up for that because of the mentality of the team, how fit they are, the subs we can bring but today it was not enough.

“Now we have a whole week to prepare for West Ham and everyone needs to be there - and they are - in that zone.

“The only way we can win a game is hard work, constant effort and I think I’ve said a few times now that we are not the team to be winning 3-0 or 4-0 at half time with a few acts of brilliance."