Liverpool manager Arne Slot addressed talk of him losing his job amid the Reds' torrid run of form as pressure cranks up on the Dutch manager. The reigning English champions got off to a flying start in their title defence campaign but are now struggling for form as they have lost six out of their last seven matches across all competitions and are already seven points behind Premier League leaders Arsenal.
Liverpool's torrid run of form continues
The Reds spent heavily in the summer transfer window to rebuild their title-winning squad as they broke the British transfer record twice in the same window to sign big names like Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen and Alexander Isak from Newcastle United. Slot further bolstered his attack by securing a transfer for Hugo Ekitike, while he replaced Real Madrid-bound Trent Alexander-Arnold with Jeremie Frimpong.
Liverpool got off to a flying start with seven wins in a row as they looked set for a successful title defence. However, since their Premier League clash against Crystal Palace on September 27, Slot's side has lost six out of seven matches, including four consecutive defeats in the league. They have fallen to seventh position in the table and are as many points behind league leaders Arsenal.
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Amid the club's poor run of form, there has been speculation over Slot's future at Anfield and the Dutchman has now addressed talk of him getting sacked.
"For me they say similar things," the Liverpool head coach said. "I speak mainly to Richard and once in a while to the others (Edwards and FSG). They also see similar things as what I see. For me the conversations haven’t changed a lot. We always talk about the game and it’s always nicer to talk about the game if you have won than if you have lost.
"[I feel supported] not only in this period but also when things go well. I'm a firm believer all the squads I had were 20-21 players that can play because if you have too many it's already a struggle to make a squad. But then you have to keep them fit. Tell me if I’m wrong but I think during the week [the reaction] was about when I said something about the squad we are having, and that could have been seen as criticising or an excuse?
"What I meant was, if these players are all fit we have so much quality. This club is in such a good place when you look at the quality we have for the short-term future and the long-term future. But – I’ve used Alex (Alexander Isak) as an example but I don’t want to go into every single player because players sometimes don’t like it when they are named as being fit or not – not all of them were ready from the start to play three games in seven days.
"And then when you get four injuries like we have at the moment, it is a struggle going into a programme like this. I used this to explain my line-up on Wednesday. I didn’t use it as an excuse for losing against Brentford or the loss before or the loss before. I did it because Ibou (Ibrahima Konate) and Virgil (van Dijk) had to play a lot. Joe Gomez missed out on the whole of pre-season. Macca (Alexis Mac Allister) missed out on the whole of pre-season."
'Let us first start to win again'
When asked about the potential for a contract extension rather than an exit, Slot added: "That is the last question I was expecting. I think my focus can be completely on getting Liverpool back to winning ways. That’s my first answer. The second answer is that contract talks, if they are even there, we never speak about this here. But let us first start to win again, that’s where my main focus is."
AFPDifficult set of fixtures
Slot's men are scheduled to face Aston Villa at home on Saturday, before they host Real Madrid in the Champions League on November 4 and then take on Manchester City five days later at Etihad Stadium. The English champions will hope to get back to winning against Unai Emery's men before approaching the crunch games against the two giants of European football.
